
°o 



( A % V <£ SJtto±: 



?: ***** 
K* <y * • 










*° 




A 










* *v 






: <sr+* : 






TvT* A 











* 



**^ rO^ . • ■ , "^ 




















*w 



£*. 



^ *. 



•• ** 



V3**V V : - : V 'V^V 







♦*°* 



<^ *: 





This photograph of the Emperor and King and the son of the 

present Crown Prince was made on September 15, 1914, when 

rumors of the death of His Majesty made the round of the 

press abroad. 



Austria - Hungary 
and the War 



BY 

ERNEST LUDWIG 

I. and E. Consul for Austria-Hungary 

IN 

CLEVELAND, OHIO 



WITH A PREFACE BY 

Dr. Konstantin Theodor Dumba 

Ambassador of Austria-Hungary 



NEW YORK 
J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

57 Rose Street 



H SI? 
.L8 



Copyright 1915, by 
J. S. Ogilvik Publishing Company. 



JAN 21 1915 

©CI.A393375 



CONTENTS. 

chapter page 

Introduction 5 

Foreword 14 

I. Points of Human Interest — Austria- 
Hungary and the War - - - 17 

II. Was the Note to Servia Brutal? - 55 

III. The Sarajevo Trial - - - - 78 

IV. Has Servia Any Historical Claims 

Over Bosnia and Herzegovina? - 130 

V. The Great Kussian Propaganda in 
Galicia, Bukovina and the North- 
eastern Districts of Hungary be- 
fore the War 141 

VI. Economic War Conditions in Austria- 
Hungary — The United States and 
the Dual Monarchy - - • 160 

Appendix A — The Note of Austria-Hungary 

to Servia ... - 197 
The Servian Answer - - 204 

Appendix B — Peter the Great's Last Will 218 



INTRODUCTION 

I recommend to the kind attention of the Ameri- 
can public this book, written by the Austro-Hun- 
garian consul in Cleveland, on certain vital phases 
of the struggle which is convulsing Europe, The 
reader will find in these chapters a comprehensive 
presentation of the political forces and historical 
developments which led to the initial clash of arms. 
This volume contains authentic information about 
the Near East, a region so little known in the United 
States ; it offers a graphic description of conditions 
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the two Austrian prov- 
inces coveted by Servia, and throws an illuminating 
light upon the real, the underlying, causes of the 
world-conflict. These causes I may be permitted 
to summarize in concise form. 

It should be borne clearly in mind at the outset 
that for more than a century Austria-Hungary and 
Russia have been keen rivals in the Balkan Penin- 
sula. Owing to its geographical position the Dual 
Monarchy is the predominant economic factor in 
Southeastern Europe, and in the course of her 
commercial expansion has sought, quite naturally, 
to secure a market for the output of her industries 
in Servia, Bulgaria and European Turkey. On the 
other hand Russia, swayed by sentimental and ter- 
ritorial considerations, has sought to exercise ex- 
clusive control over the newly constituted Slav 

5 



6 INTRODUCTION 

countries of the Balkans. This claim to political 
mastery the Kussian government has based upon 
the racial affinity of all Slavic nations, upon the 
bond of kinship offered by the Greek church, com- 
mon to all the Balkan states, and upon the fact that 
these states owe their existence to the many wars 
waged by the great Northern power upon the Turk- 
ish empire. 

Back of the activities of Russian diplomacy in 
the Balkan Peninsula is her legitimate desire to se- 
cure the opening of the straits of Constantinople, 
closed to her by treaties, and thus to obtain a free 
outlet from the Black Sea for her commerce and 
her crops, and the unhampered passage of her fleet 
to the Mediterranean. In the pursuit of these ob- 
jects the statecraft of St. Petersburg has sought to 
control the Balkan states and to prevent any of 
them, especially a vigorous and progressive Bul- 
garia, from occupying Constantinople, the key to 
the Dardanelles. In her endeavors to establish and 
maintain such a hegemony in Balkan affairs, Russia 
inevitably has menaced the vital commercial inter- 
ests of Austria-Hungary. 

The antagonism between Russia and Austria- 
Hungary found expression in perpetual diplomatic 
strife, aggravated by the underground activities of 
Russian consuls, reinforced by unofficial agents 
and priests. Austria-Hungary, in support of her 
interests in the disputed region, could employ no 
such extraneous forces as were placed within the 
grasp of Russia by the accident of her kinship to 



i, 



INTRODUCTION 7 

the Balkan states, but relied upon her commercial 
travellers and upon the importance of the economic 
interests common to the Dual Monarchy and the 
small states south of the Danube. 

After the congress of Berlin in 1878, which was 
called to adjust the boundaries of Southeastern 
Europe following the Russo-Turkish war, the newly 
created kingdom' of Servia maintained, through 
King Milan, close relations with Austria-Hungary. 
Inasmuch as the Dual Monarchy had received from 
Europe a mandate for the occupation of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina and the restoration of order in those 
two Turkish provinces, King Milan, and subse- 
quently his son, King Alexander, relinquished every 
pretension to expansion westward into Bosnia and 
Herzegovina, and concentrated their efforts upon 
an educational campaign in Macedonia, especially 
in the districts inhabited by a Bulgarian popula- 
tion. 

This regime of harmony was interrupted violently 
in 1903, by the assassination of King Alexander 
and the election of King Peter Karageorgevitch, the 
scion of a banished house, to the Servian throne. 
No sooner had the Karageorgevitch been restored 
than it became apparent to- all the world that a new 
order had been established in Servia. An aggres- 
sive pro-Russian reigned at Belgrade. The begin- 
ning of the new rule was also the beginning of that 
rapid process of subordination to Russian dictation 
whereby Servia became a mere outpost of Russia, 
chosen to provoke and harass the neighboring 



8 INTRODUCTION 

Dual Monarchy for the purposes of Eussian 
diplomacy. 

The Servian nationalist agitation on the Austrian 
side of the border was carried on upon a large scale, 
by such organizations* as the Narodna Obrana, to 
which some of the highest officers of state, civil and 
military, openly belonged. The Narodna Obrana 
carried on its operations in Belgrade, under the full 
view of the authorities, promoting political discord 
beyond the Austrian frontier under the pretence of 
educational work ostensibly aimed at the cultural 
uplift of the Austrian Slavs. 

Then came the annexation of Bosnia and Herze- 
govina, a defensive measure undertaken by the Aus- 
tro-Hungarian government in 1908, to meet the 
demand of the Young Turks, then in power at Con- 
stantinople, for the restoration to an Ottoman ad- 
ministration of the provinces which theaCongress of 
Berlin had entrusted to Austria thirty years earlier 
as the only practicable means of restoring order in 
them. Kussia, despite repeated secret understand- 
ings by which the foreign office at St. Petersburg 
had recognized the Austrian position in Bosnia and 
Herzegovina, now took passionate umbrage at the 
act which merely regularized the status of terri- 
tories already within the boundaries of the Dual 
Monarchy. The press of St. Petersburg bitterly pro- 
tested against the annexation, which it endeavored 
to present in the light of a deadly blow at the 
interests of the Slavic race. 

The attitude of Kussia was reflected in a redoub- 



INTRODUCTION 9 

ling of the anti-Austrian agitation in Servia. At 
this point the Servian propaganda in Bosnia and 
Herzegovina dropped the educational mask and be- 
came openly political and provocative. Apostles 
from Belgrade began to traverse the Austrian prov- 
inces, preaching the gospel of sedition and violence. 
So menacing a tone did the Servian people adopt 
toward Austria-Hungary that the Dual Monarchy 
found a partial mobilization, at a high cost, impera- 
tively necessary in view of the turmoil on the Ser- 
vian side of the boundary. At this juncture of events 
there was grave peril of an actual outbreak of hos- 
tilities, which calamity was happily averted for the 
time being by the vigorous stand taken by Germany 
in championship of the vital interests of her ally. 

Confronted by a united Germanic support of the 
accomplished fact, Russia yielded her recognition 
of the annexation and Servia pledged herself to 
discontinue her provocative tactics against public 
order in Austria-Hungary. Both Russia and 
Servia were destined to repudiate their solemn un- 
dertakings at the first opportunity that offered. 
The next blow aimed at the Dual Monarchy by Rus- 
sia in her persistent attempts to exclude Austrian 
commercial influence from the Balkans came five 
years after the international crisis of 1909. It took 
the form of a Balkan League, contrived in St. 
Petersburg, and comprising Servia, Bulgaria, 
Greece and Montenegro. 

This confederation was designed, ostensibly, to 
expel the Turk from Europe. The dominance of 



10 INTRODUCTION 

Russia over the workings of the new grouping of 
Balkan powers was assured by a secret clause in the 
treaty, whereby the minor signatories bound them- 
selves not to undertake a war against Turkey with- 
out Russia's consent, and which also conferred upon 
Russia the right of final decision in the distribu- 
tion of territory that might be conquered by the 
allies. Moreover, the government at St. Petersburg 
obtained from the allies a pledge that they should 
make common cause to the limits of their resources 
in case of an attack by another power. This clause 
in the agreement was aimed at Austria-Hungary. 
It contained the complete explanation of the zeal- 
ous efforts which Russia had made to bring the 
discordant Balkan elements together. That this 
alliance should hurl itself against Turkey in 1912, 
before the time was ripe for Russia's contemplated 
action against Austira-Hungary, and that it should 
destroy itself by its own violence in the second Bal- 
kan war, were events which had not been contem- 
plated by Russian diplomacy. 

However, Russia found a way to profit even from 
the unexpected course which events had taken. By 
encouraging Servian pretensions at the end of the 
first Balkan war, the Russians succeeded in 
strengthening Servia, their outpost against Austria- 
Hungary, at the expense of Bulgaria, which thus 
was deprived of the fruits of its splended victories 
over Turkey. 

Austria-Hungary had once more come perilously 
near a clash with Servia in the first Balkan war, 



INTRODUCTION 11 

. when the neighboring Slav kingdom, disregarding 
the warning of the powers, advanced to the Adriatic. 
Austria-Hungary met the situation by bringing 
about the creation of an independent Albania as a 
barrier to the establishment of a hostile maritime 
neighbor on the Adriatic. 

At the congress of Bucharest, however, Servia, 
with Russian backing, advanced territorial claims 
i which threatened the equilibrium of the Balkans. 
So menacing to its legitimate interests did the gov- 
ernment at Vienna regard this new Russo-Servian 
aggression, that the ministry of foreign affairs made 
inquiries at Rome and in Berlin in an attempt to 
obtain assurances of co-operation in the event that 
the current developments should force upon the 
Dual Monarchy the task of restoring the balance of 
power so necessary to the complete tranquilliza- 
tion of Southeastern Europe. This inquiry, which 
was presented to the attention of the world recently 
by Signor Giolitti, former premier of Italy, as an 
indication of aggressive designs against Servia by 
Austria-Hungary, was in fact a purely precaution- 
ary measure. It was undertaken in an effort to 
induce a revision of the treaty o*f Bucharest — an in- 
strument regarded at Vienna as an oppressive de- 
vice which, by perpetuating the resentment of the 
Bulgarian people, the strongest unit in the Balkan 
Peninsula, introduced the constant danger of a 
future conflict. Austria-Hungary realized so thor- 
oughly the significance of the latest move by Russia 
on the international chess-board, that it was only by 



/ 



12 INTRODUCTION 

the pacific influences exerted from the highest 
quarters in the empire that a clash was averted at 
this juncture. The treaty of Bucharest, accordingly, 
was permitted to stand in its original form, 
thanks to the desire of Austria-Hungary to avert a 
violation of the peace of Europe even at the cost of 
a palpable menace to her own security. 

From this moment Servia, assured of the protec- 
tion of Russia, which had been put to the test dur- 
ing two wars, abandoned every reserve and openly 
plunged into a campaign of defiant provocation 
against the neighboring Austro-Hungarian empire. 
The agitation within the boundaries of the Slav 
kingdom for the erection of a greater Servia upon 
the ruins of a disintegrated Austria, assumed a 
violence which' gave pause to even the most optimis- 
tic minds at Vienna. The Servian press, people and 
government united in a demonstration of malignant 
hostility which fell but a degree short of a declara- 
tion of war. Public opinion in the Dual Monarchy 
was so profoundly disturbed by the tumult beyond 
the border that the government was subjected to a 
storm of criticism for its continued attitude of for- 
bearance. 

At the same time there were other disquieting 
manifestations of the activities of the Russian prop- 
aganda ; activities beyond the sphere of the Servian 
agitation — in Eastern Galicia, among the Poles 
and the Ruthenians, in addition to the normal mis- 
sionary work which Russia had been carrying on 
among all the Slavic peoples in the Dual Monarchy. 



INTRODUCTION 13 

Secret Russian agents, in many instances in the 
guise of priests of the Orthodox Russian church, 
developed an ominous zeal in their mission of prop- 
agating disaffection among the subjects of the 
Austrian crown and preparing the way for the great 
"deliverer" from the North. 

And the sinister climax to all this subterranean 
contriving came with the assassination of the Arch- 
duke Franz Ferdinand by a "patriotic" Serb youth 
at Serajevo, the capital of Bosnia, on June 28th. 

/ That crowning act in the series of provocations 
confronted Austria-Hungary with the choice of 
accepting without protest the beginnings of disinte- 
gration, or drawing the sword in defence of its 
imperilled sovereignty. War was the only choice 

J possible. It is not a war waged by a government 
for its own aggrandizement. It is a struggle for 
life, undertaken by a people whose temper has been 
long and sorely tried by the malicious machinations 
of neighbors to whom the continuance of peace was 
only an opportunity for interminable conspiracies 
against the tranquillity and the dignity of the Dual 
Empire. 

KONSTANTIN THEODOR DUMBA, 

Ambassador of Austria-Hungary. 

Washington, Dec. 20th, 1914. 



FOREWORD 

Perhaps it will not be found necessary for me to 
state that I am not a neutral. 

My official position would be a bar to this quali- 
fication. But although I lack in the technical re- 
quirements of a neutral, I trust that my American 
readers will say after they have read my book that 
I am not lacking in impartiality. 

I have endeavored to erase all personal bias and 
ask for my readers indulgence if my presentation 
of our case does not come up fully to the expecta- 
tions which they may entertain on this account. 

I admit I sometimes felt discouraged, when I 
heard leading representatives of the press, personal 
friends of mine, say : "There is no use, the American 
people have made up their mind. They believe this 
is the Kaiser's war. They think that this war will 
not end until militarism both in your country and 
Germany will be crushed," etc. 

I have deemed it my duty from the first moment 
after I had returned from Europe in September to 
present our side to the public in a calm, dignified 
manner. This duty, moreover, as will be found 
natural, is also a duty imposed by my office. 

In some instances I have succeeded, but in many 
others not. Articles writen to magazines setting 
forth our side were returned with polite excuses. 
The editors regretted that they were unable to pub- 

14 



FOREWORD 15 

lish them, because, while appreciating the privilege 
of perusing them, the subject of the article did not 
fall within the scope of the magazine, or words to 
that effect. That is why I was prompted to write 
this book. 

f We would like to convince the American public 
that this war was not of our making. It was forced 
upon us. Outward appearances may perhaps seem 
in contradiction to our view, but appearances are 
seldom conclusive. 

Formally we may have made the first step, when 
our note was sent to Servia ; but in its substance this 
step was merely the outcome of a great many others 
made before by our adversary, until our patience 
finally gave way. Any other country with self- 
respect would have acted as we did. This we know 
to be true. 

I venture the prediction that this war will be of 
short duration. Both sides will soon see the use- 
lessness of continuing the struggle when the forces 
are about even and neither side can totally destroy 
the other. J Relieve, however, that the gain will be 
tcith our side. A slight gain, perhaps, but still a 
gain. I base this belief on the fact becoming more 
evident as the war is progressing that the people of 
Austria-Hungary and Germany are linked in a much 
firmer union than the people of our present allied 
enemies. 

We believe that "Niebelungentreue" prompted 
Germany to gird on her sword for us. Niebelungen- 
treue is an equivalent to German loyalty. This 



i.Q FOREWORD 

loyalty both our peoples will mutually keep unto 
the end. We will stand and fall together. 

While we fight, since fight we must, it is our 
ambition to uphold all principles of international 
law and of human, Christian civilization. Just as 
our State Minister of Home Affairs in Hungary, 
Dr. John von Sandor, wrote to Count Albert Ap- 
ponyi, president of the committee for the support 
of wounded and prisoners of war: "Our society 
at large has a duty to accomplish which should go 
even beyond international treaties and agreements. 
It is necessary to protect those against the rigors 
of bad weather and other hardships who have raised 
their arms against us as honest enemies, following 
the call of their home countries. Society's sym- 
pathy displayed in behalf of prisoners of war was 
and is never opposed to true patriotism." 

I have no desire to impose my or our views con- 
cerning this war on the American public. Ameri- 
cans do not yield to force. They may yield to ar- 
gument, if argument is convincing. I used genuine 
efforts to make it as convincing as humanly possible 
and I shall have genuine pleasure to hear that it 
made at least some Americans yield. 



E. L. 



Cleveland, November 15, 1914. 



I.— POINTS OF HUMAN INTEREST AND THE 
WAR IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 

To-day, that is on November 15th when I write 
these lines, discussions over questions, as for in- 
stance which country started war preparations first, 
which country prompted the war, have much more 
purely academic value than they had three months 
ago, when the war broke out ; and yet the necessity 
of a satisfactory solution of these questions, whether 
of purely academic interest or otherwise, becomes 
daily more apparent. Their solution will, indeed, 
become a paramount issue, after the last man able 
to hold his rifle will have paid his toll to his country 
on the battle-field. It will be demanded by every- 
body when the routine of peace negotiations will 
be resumed. People and governments of the various 
countries involved in this war and of other inter- 
ested and sympathetic bystanders will demand that 
clearness should be brought into these questions. 

To judge a case before all evidence is in shows a 
prejudiced mind. To make Germany responsible 
for this world imbroglio, because one or possibly a 
few of her theoreticians have asserted that militar- 
ism is everything, demonstrates a deplorable bias. 
It is just as deplorable as would be, for instance, 
demonstrated by German sympathizers, were these 
latter to assert that Great Britain is responsible 
because of the attitude and utterances of some of 

17 



18 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

her war writers on militarism. And England also 
has had her "Bernhardis." If Homer Lea and his 
"Day of the Saxon" dedicated to the late Field Mar- 
shal Lord Roberts is less known to-day to the Eng- 
lish speaking world, it is because the British adver- 
tisers on both sides of the Atlantic have for obvious 
reasons drawn more attention to Bernhardi than to 
Homer Lea. Dr. von Mach, in his excellent book on 
"What Germany Wants," has commented on this 
war-study, and excerpts from it are reprinted in 
Appendix B of his book. These clearly indicate 
that Homer Lea's war spirit yields in nothing to 
General von Bernhardi's. 

Neither of the war -books, however, is an evidence 
for or against the country which produces the 
writer. It is hardly believable that they would be 
accepted even as circumstantial evidence in any 
court of public opinion of the civilized world. They 
are in no way, either directly or indirectly, con- 
nected with the war, nor could they have prompted 
it. These books are not even of symptomatic interest 
with reference to the war, as they, at the very best, 
represent the ideas of a small minority in each 
respective country only. 

Not theoretical evidence will be required when 
the final wind-up comes, but facts; simple, plain 
facts, the relative importance of which everybody 
grasps. 

I believe, for instance, the pronounced efforts 
made by one or the other country shortly before the 
general conflagration to increase the annual con- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 19 

tingent of their recruits, should be a strong circum- 
stantial evidence against that country or those 
countries in such a Supreme Court of public 

/ opinion. The appropriation by the Russian Duma 
for the increase of the annual contingent of recruits 
by 125,000 during three years, shortly before the war 

/ began, is such a fact. France's measure to raise 
the peace-footing of her army to nearly 800,000 
men, which is practically the peace establishment 
of the German army, although Germany's popula- 
tion is more than twenty millions more than 
France's, is another such fact. Germany's correla- 

' tive measures would be another, but if Germany 
had to follow her neighbor's example this does not 
detract from the importance of these facts in a 
court called upon to decide which country made 
the first move. 

I have no intention to argue here on the question 
who started this war. Developments in this war- 
drama have not yet reached the stage where anybody 
could have in an unbiased way collected all evidence 
referring to this point. All that any one of us can 
do who desires to perform his duty in an honest 
and conscientious way is to make contributions 
from his store of knowledge and information. 
Little by little the general store of material will ac- 
cumulate and the world will have a clearer grasp of 
the situation. This desire should be generalized in 
preference to the manifestations of some people that 
no further information is necessary, because the 
question of responsibility concerning this war is 



20 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 



already settled. They omit to add that "it is settled 
in their mind." A jury deciding a case before evi- 
dence was submitted is not liable to be upheld by 
the Court, if this fact would be proved against its 
members. 

In this chapter I propose to comment on ques- 
tions of more general human interest concerning 
this war, which are based on my observations during 
my recent vacation trip in Europe. I think it is 
noteworthy to draw the attention of my American 
readers to the fact that as a member of the Austro- 
Hungarian Foreign Service in the United States, 
I started on my leave as late as July the 18th. It 
is a general rule, which is in force probably in every 
civilized country that in warlike times, "leaves" of 
all members of a country's army and navy, and its 
foreign service are instantly suspended. Everybody 
has to return to his post of duty. Had my country 
planned to start a war against various European 
countries or even one, had it even thought that such 
a war was impending, it would most decidedly have 
instructed all its embassies and legations to counter- 
mand all leaves of the various foreign staff-mem- 
bers. Instead of which, however, two of my Ameri- 
can colleagues, our Consul-General in New York, 
and our Consul in San Francisco, had left on their 
respective "leaves" about the time when I left. I am 
not conversant with other similar moves of my 
colleagues in other parts of the world, but the fact 
alone that the three heads of some of our most im- 
portant Consular offices in the United States were 



. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 21 

allowed to leave, would indicate that our Govern- 
ment had no warlike intentions. It must be noted 
in this connection that Consulates, in the early be- 
ginnings of war especially, have to perform very im- 
portant duties, such as calling in of their country's 
reservists and all persons liable to military service, 
care for transportation of these people to the seat 
of war in their country, etc. As another significant 
feature it must also be emphasized that the German 
Ambassador was likewise in Europe in July on his 
leave, which would hardly have been possible had 
his country planned to war with France and Russia 
and the whole world, as some people would like to 
make it out. I am also in a position to state that 
until the last days of July, when war was actually 
declared, no reservists or officers of our army had 
had been called in to join the ranks. 

On the other hand, we have the evidence of Sam 
Blythe, of the Saturday Evening Post, whom the 
American public knows as a trusted, reliable in- 
formant, that as early as the 31st of July quite a 
number of British officers from the Pacific Coast, 
Vancouver, etc., were leaving from New York to 
England after they had been called in by the war 
office hurriedly. In order to leave from New York 
on an Atlantic steamer practically at the height of 
the season, they must have made their reservations 
some time previously. But even if they were all 
able to secure hurried reservations in the nick of 
time, it is safe to assume that they must have left 
the Pacific. Coast at least a week before they started 



22 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

from New York on the 31st of July. On the 23d 
or 24th of July, however, nobody on the Continent 
of Europe had any idea that England would be in 
war with Germany. Owing to my absence I can- 
not verify whether or not this was known in the 
United States. 

We have similar news from other parts of the 
world confirming Mr. Blythe's above information. 
Thus the "Peking Gazette" of July 28th conveyed 
the information from Hankow that the crew of some 
British gunboats stationed there had received hur- 
ried orders to leave their station and to proceed to 
Hongkong and Weihaiwei, where they were to be 
used for the manning of some armored cruisers, 
and as reserves for some warships, whose crews 
were not yet on war footing. The gunboats in Han- 
kow — so it was stated — were left in charge of pri- 
vate guards, after some parts of same had been dis- 
mounted, disabling these boats for practical use. 
We incidentally from the same source likewise 
know, that on July 30th the Imperial Chinese 
Telegraph Office in Tientsin gave out notice that 
the cables between Shanghai and Chefoo had been 
disabled and no further Berlin cables arrived from 
that day on. From far Eastern papers it would 
appear that England and Japan in the Far East 
were ready for action on ar around July 30th. The 
British fleet was concentrated in Weihaiwei on July 
28th, the French fleet in East Asia in Haiphong on 
the 1st of August. 

On the 1st of August Peking papers positively 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 23 

stated that Japan would go to war against Germany 
jointly with England. 

I give these reports merely as some additional 
symptomatic evidence to clear up some phases of 
the ante-war situation. I am frank to state that 
they are open to further investigation. When peace 
will be established all this and much other evidence 
will be examined and verified or excluded, just as 
the finding may be. It is of course impossible for 
any human being to know all that has been going 
on in the various parts of the world within the last 
few months. 

GERMAN EMPEROR LOVER OF PEACE. 

My party, consisting of my wife, myself and Mr. 
Howard W. Baker, a friend of ours from Minneap- 
olis, sailed on the "Imperator" from New York 
on the 18th of July. We arrived in Cuxhaven, 
Hamburg, on the 25th of July. By that time Aus- 
tria-Hungary had sent her note to Servia and the 
enthusiasm of the masses in Hamburg was high. 
Thousands of people thronged to the Austro-Hun- 
garian Consulate General displaying the sympathies 
which the German people in general felt for the 
people of Austria-Hungary. War between Austria- 
Hungary and Servia was in those first days still 
considered a vague possibility only. It was miles 
away from our own minds. 

The same scenes of enthusiasm were repeated in 
Berlin, where we arrived the next day. Yet we 
would not give credence to the war rumors, although 



24 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

there was undoubtedly much electricity in the air. 
You could feel its prick when you rubbed shoulders 
with the crowds on Berlin's great Avenue Unter 
den Linden. On the following day we drove out 
to Potsdam. This was the day on which the German 
Emperor was expected back from his northern 
cruise. He was expected to arrive at three o'clock in 
the afternoon at the station close to the New Pal- 
ace. Many American tourists had assembled there 
on the chaussee, leading up to the entrance of the 
new palace. 

When we saw the Emperor and Empress driven 
past, followed by the Chancellor of the German Em- 
pire, the Chiefs of the General Staff, the Chiefs of 
the Navy and Army, I had the first premonition 
of the situation's earnest. So must have had the 
Emperor, as his expression looked careworn. I 
belong to the many who, with Professor Burgess, 
are convinced that the German Emperor always 
has been a man of peace. Carrying with him the 
doubtless pleasant impressions of his annual sum- 
mer vacation cruise, which had to be abruptly 
broken off, he no doubt also realized at that moment 
the terrible burden and grief of the impending great 
catastrophe which rests so heavily upon his should- 
ers. I again ask my readers, would the German 
Emperor have gone on his leave, had he premedi- 
tated, nay, even foreseen developments? Considera- 
tions which hold good for mere mortals often also 
hold good for emperors and heads of a country, and 
this is certainly one of them. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 25 

This first chapter should bring out points of 
human interest rather than heavy war material, 
and this is why I comment here on my own first im- 
pressions of the war, just as they gradually devel- 
oped. 

The next two days saw us in Dresden. By that 
time war-fever had visibly risen. The first hostili- 
ties between our Monarchy and Servia had started, 
but Germany was still miles away from her personal 
wars. Everywhere symptoms increased in number 
that Russia would take advantage of the local dif- 
ficulties existing between Austria-Hungary and 
Servia. Her secret agents must have undoubtedly 
received information to that effect, as their activi- 
ties were noticeable on many points of the German- 
Russian frontier. In Dresden, for instance, a plot 
had been discovered three days prior to our arrival 
there to blow up the railway bridge. Because of 
this discovery, the hangar with the Zeppelin air- 
ship was closed the day following our arrival. 

WAR ENTHUSIASM IN AUSTRIA. 

After two days' stay we continued our way to 
Carlsbad. The route over Bodenbach had been al- 
ready closed to general passenger traffic, but the 
Teschen line stood open. This was on the 31st of 
July. At one station in Bohemia the door of our 
compartment was all of a sudden thrown open and 
an excited young man rushed in. "Have you heard 
the latest news?" he shouted at us. "General mob- 
ilization will be ordered to-day. That means Ger- 



26 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

many, Italy, France, Russia, in war. What will 
England do?" We were unprepared for the an- 
swer. As I stated before, the idea of a general 
European complication was far away from our 
minds. We were all confident that hostilities would 
be limited to the area between Austria-Hungary 
and Servia. The terrible disaster of a general war 
came as an entirely unexpected shock. 

As late as the day of our departure from Dresden 
we were continuing to plan motor trips across Hun- 
gary, the Austrian Alps, Italy and other countries. 
Everybody around us in the train coming from 
abroad must have been visited by a similar shock. 
There was much life visible in each station which 
our train passed and it was easy to observe that the 
crowds waxed more and more enthusiastic as we 
proceeded. The people of Austria-Hungary keenly 
felt the injury done by Servia to our country during 
many years. The country had been kept in sus- 
pense by her little neighbor ever since the Balkan 
war trouble. Because of Servians hostile attitude 
appropriate military measures had to be adopted 
to guard against surprises on our Southern fron- 
tier. But most of all general market conditions 
labored under the strain of the long suspense. 
Everybody felt that Russia stood behind Servia, 
driving her along. The people did not require 
White Books, Orange Books, to verify their appre- 
hension in regard to Russia's participation. If 
the people of a whole country suspect the people 
and government of another country to harbor de- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 27 

signs against their own country, their suspicions 
are rarely wrong. It would be impossible to recount 
all the indications which led up to these suspicions. 
Suffice it to say that the people realized that Russia 
and Servia were their unflinching enemies and war 
with them was inevitable. 

Our general mobilization following the mobiliza- 
tion of the Russian army which had to our best 
knowledge been going on for many days or weeks 
even, lifted the general suspense of uncertainty all 
at once. Our people had been suffering under it 
for a long time. It was like lifting a heavy mill- 
stone from them, and this accounts partially for 
the general great elation which followed; but only 
partially, for the real grounds for the general ela- 
tion and enthusiasm which have prevailed ever 
since that memorable day lay much deeper, as my 
readers will see from this chapter. At that moment, 
however, everybody spoke freely of the things which 
were uppermost in his mind. And this is un- 
doubtedly why the excited young man had asked us 
about England's attitude, thinking that we might 
be in a position to enlighten him. 

Up to that moment probably nobody in our coun- 
try had contemplated England's part in this war. 
Never have Austria-Hungary and England been in 
war before. In the times of the Napoleonic wars 
we were fighting together against France's great 
"War-Lord." Relations between our two countries 
had always been very cordial. King Edward VII 
used to visit Marienbad in Bohemia regularly for 



28 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

many years. His visit acted undoubtedly as an in- 
centive to frequent visits of English people in our 
summer health resorts, in Vienna, Budapest, etc. 
The visit of the Eighty Club to Austria-Hungary 
hardly ten years ago is still in everybody's mind, 
and I personally have many pleasant recollections 
of that visit. Since then, and in particular drawing 
nearer to our days, representative British men have 
often expressed their sympathies with us. This 
. was especially the case in connection with our Ser- 
vian troubles. Sir Fairfax Cartwright, British Am- 
bassador in Vienna, said to the editor of the Vienna 
Allgemeine Zeitung in 1909: "Make war and deal 
quickly with Servia before anybody can stop you. 
The end of Servia will be a blessing for all Europe." 
Before the beginning of the present crisis the Brit- 
ish Ambassador in Vienna, Sir E. de Bunsen, re- 
marked to the same editor : "Be convinced that the 
whole English nation condemns the criminals of 
Sarajevo. No Englishman has any sympathy left 
for Servia. We are already tired of being thrown 
again into disquietude by this little country, and 
there is no Englishman who does not wish heartily 
that Servia should receive a sound and lasting les- 
son." The above-named paper vouches for the cor- 
rectness of these statements, and there is no reason 
to doubt its veracity. 

I selected these statements at random, but many 
other similar evidences have been forthcoming late- 
ly to indicate that England was in sympathy with 
our side. As late as the 17th of July the West- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 29 

minister Gazette in London said that it was impos- 
sible to expect the A astro-Hungarian Government 
to stand by impassively. Servia would do well if 
she considered the just anxieties of her great neigh- 
bor and would do all to pacify him. She should 
not wait for pressure, which, as Count Tisza, the 
Hungarian premier, had said, might lead to war- 
like complications. The Servian press campaign 
undoubtedly had not improved and alleviated the 
general feeling after the Sarajevo murder. Vienna 
and Budapest were justly suspicious. 

I do not say that all these expressions and state- 
ments occurred to me at that moment, although as 
a problem the British attitude just then was highly 
interesting to all of us. 

We spent one day in Carlsbad and then proceeded 
on our way via Prague to Vienna. I shall never 
forget the countless scenes of enthusiasm which I 
witnessed during those days and during the follow- 
ing weeks which I spent in Austria-Hungary. The 
points of my personal observation were naturally 
limited as to number and area, as passenger rail- 
way traffic in the first days of mobilization was 
greatly handicapped, as was to be expected. But 
through the daily press, through many friends with 
whom I was able to communicate, I was certainly 
able and in a position to collect data of interest. 

I begin with Bohemia, where we then were. We 
have been often reading in foreign newspaper re- 
ports about strong pro-Russian leanings of the Bo- 
hemians. In these reports we were given to under- 



30 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

stand that at the very first occasion, whether this 
would materialize in the shape of war or in some 
other shape, Bohemians would bolt and secede from 
the Monarchy. These fantastic predictions had of 
course no foundation beyond the fact that the Ger- 
man and Cech population were occasionally at log- 
gerheads over questions of local politics. No out- 
sider can apply a just measure to the framework 
of motley nationalities which compose the Austro- 
Hungarian Monarchy. They are apt to overrate 
local dissensions and only too apt to overlook the 
strength of historic cohesion. Bohemian historians 
who proclaim the reign of Charles IV, who was 
elected emperor in 1347, as the golden age for 
Bohemia, whom they call the "father of his people," 
because he founded the University in Prague and 
generally improved the looks of the city and because 
he liked to live there, are all in accord that Em- 
peror-King Francis Joseph's reign has been the 
second golden age for their country. 

The task of the ruler has become more difficult 
since the days of Charles IV, and this is due to the 
complications of modern political life. Bohemia, 
during the reign of Emperor-King Francis Joseph, 
has become a wealthy country of first class indus- 
trial importance. Bohemian art and music have 
flourished during this period as never before. The 
use of Bohemian language in schools and adminis- 
tration is practically general. Bohemian autonomy 
has made great strides and Bohemians think to-day 
as their famous leader, Francis Palacky, thought 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 31 

about fifty years ago. "We Techeques (Ceclis) — so 
he said — can gain what we want and aspire to, in 
Austria alone. Beware, if ever we come under the 
Russian knout." All little misunderstandings of 
a local and political character were at once for- 
gotten, when war broke out. Bohemians felt that 
their future and happiness were linked to the Mon- 
archy's future. In Prague, capital of Bohemia, 
Cechs and Germans fell around each other's necks. 
Cechs and Germans went in throngs before the Ger- 
man Consulate in their city singing the "Wacht am 
Rhein" in Bohemian alternately with the Austrian 
anthem and their own song, "Kde Domov muj." 
They cheered both emperors and went to the 
Radetzky monument, from where Prince Lobkowitz 
addressed them in both languages — Bohemian and 
German. They also went before the palace of 
Prince Thun, Bohemia's Governor, cheering him 
and cheering the country. Industrious home- 
builders as they are known to be, they had no mis- 
givings about the importance and seriousness of 
the impending war. 

They may dislike the idea of war in theory, as 
everybody does, but everybody knows too well that 
an amalgamation with Russia would very soon 
make an end to their privileged position as a lead- 
ing Slav people. Russians would soon force them 
to give up their individuality as a people. More- 
over, they abhor the idea of being under a corrupt 
Russian rule. For every Bohemian knows that 
Russia is corrupt and Russian rule would spell 



32 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAB 

financial contributions not only to the Government 
alone, and in an altogether much larger degree than 
their present public charges, but would bring pri- 
vate exactions and graft of Russian public officers. 

As a matter of loyalty Bohemians have been 
known as loyal and gallant soldiers in all wars 
which our country had to fight in the past, in 1866 
against Prussia, and in 1878 in Bosnia. Reports 
from the front of the present war are all unani- 
mous in their praise of Bohemian valor and loyalty. 
Bohemians in the present war have enthusiastically 
responded to the call to arms. Statements pub- 
lished in certain papers that Bohemian regiments 
had deserted, that Bohemians had shown disloyal- 
ty to their home country, are nothing but bold lies, 
made out of whole cloth. 

On the contrary, Bohemians have given a splendid 
exhibition of their prowess on all battlefields, and 
this was recognized by the Chief Commander of the 
Army, the Emperor-King himself. The 54th Han- 
nakian Infantry Regiment so far has been particu- 
larly the recipient of great praise for its valor. 

At each station in Bohemia — and this is true of 
each station in the Monarchy — girls and women 
clad in white were expecting the military trains, 
to present the soldiers with flowers, cigars, cigar- 
ettes, coffee and sweets. It would be unjust were 
I to omit the part that women played in raising 
enthusiasm. Women have now as ever been instru- 
mental in keeping up our national patriotism. 

Vienna, where we proceeded next, presented the 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 33 

aspect of a jubilant city. His Majesty the Emperor 
and King had just arrived there on the 30th of July 
from his usual summer resort in Ischl. Enthusiasm 
at his arrival knew no bounds. Nothing could 
have proved more conclusively that the war was 
not of his making and that the people stood by him 
unanimously, than the reception and cheers of the 
many ten thousands of crowds. These cheers meant 
the heart-beat of all the people of Austria-Hungary 
They represented the beginning of a great new era 
for the Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. 

Instead of a general disruption and disintegra- 
tion, which her enemies had fervently hoped for, 
the war had united everybody. All party, race and 
creed lines of a sudden ceased to exist. There 
has been some feeling between Austrians and Hun- 
garians over questions of home policy, and as in the 
case of Bohemia they were apt to be exaggerated by 
people not familiar with our internal affairs. Now, 
however, these feelings have disappeared ; Hungar- 
ian students and other Hungarians marching on 
the streets of Vienna and singing the Austrian, 
Hungarian and German anthems were loudly 
cheered by the Viennese. One student went before 
the monument of Admiral Tegethoff and addressed 
the crowds with the words : "May the heroic spirit 
of this great one inspire us all !" 

The way the people of the whole country felt 
over the war is perhaps best expressed in the fol- 
lowing article of the Fremdenblatt, a leading 
paper of Vienna: "The general mobilization of 



34 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

Austria-Hungary is a measure of defense. Austria- 
Hungary is a peace-power and has always in the 
past proved that she was not inspired either by a 
wish of conquest or a desire for glory. We — so the 
article says — conduct this was for peace's sake, and 
the peace which we desire is one for the whole 
globe. Servia, through her policy of incommen- 
surate ambition, does not allow Europe to regain 
the assurance of lasting peace. If she is taught a 
lesson, this would be a profit to all civilized peoples. 
It is therefore unjustified that the Russian Empire 
interferes in this struggle by throwing into the 
balance all her own military forces. We have to 
fight this struggle with our injudicious neighbor. 
There is no reason why she, Russia, should have to 
fight with us. We have never led an aggressive 
policy against Russia, either in the present or in 
the past. We cannot understand why our conflict 
with Servia should hurt the Russian sphere of in- 
terest. Servia is an independent state. A depend- 
ence of this kingdom at our flank on whatever 
third power we cannot admit. We are on the point 
to overthrow the group of conspirators which now 
leads and corrupts her. If Russia, when we pre- 
pare for this action, acts as if we were to attack a 
Russian vassal, we certainly must answer, that 
Servia is no Russian vassal state. Through her 
mobilization Russia has imposed a heavy burden 
not only on herself, but on the whole of Europe. 
Above all on our people. But we are convinced 
that our people will bear this burden with the cour- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 35 

age which has already shown such splendid expres- 
sions in these days." 

WAR ENTHUSIASM IN HUNGARY. 

Prague and Vienna were by no means alone in 
their enthusiasm. This was equally loud in Buda- 
pest, Zagreb, Lemberg, Zara, Innsbruck, Gorz, 
Salzburg, Triest and everywhere in the Monarchy. 
In Budapest parliament was adjourned with a 
royal rescript on July 28th. At this occasion 
speeches were made by the leaders of political 
parties indicative of the general sentiment which 
inspired the whole country. The Premier, Count 
Tisza, said that the country was proud because of 
the spirit which had aroused the whole nation with- 
out distinction of nationality. "The whole nation 
enthusiastically hastens to follow the call of His 
Majesty to the flag, and we, members of Hungarian 
Government, feel the additional burden to our great 
and sacred duties due to the general enthusiasm. 
We must see that this enthusiasm is not spent in 
vain, and that it may also find expression in splen- 
did deeds on the battlefield. It is our duty to 
exercise our influence in such a manner that this 
war, which is imposed on us and which we finally 
resolved to carry on after all our peaceful efforts 
had been frustrated, shall not come to an end until 
the honor and safety and peace of the Hungarian 
nation and of the whole Monarchy will be secured 
for our country for all time to come." 

Count Albert Apponyi expressed the opinion of 



36 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

all political parties formerly opposing Government, 
when he said that everybody was convinced of the 
unavoidability of the present reckoning and that 
by starting it we were merely performing a most 
elementary defensive duty. He also hoped that this 
action would be successful and make an end to the 
disease which practically compelled us every second 
year to order a mobilization. If we had stood these 
conditions any longer, we would have reached the 
point where Europe would have called us her second 
"sick man." Count Apponyi expressed hope that 
war would be localized to Servia and paid a glow- 
ing tribute to the loyalty of our German allies. 

Another very significant speech which was de- 
livered at the same time in the Hungarian House 
of Lords was that of the Right Reverend John 
Csernoch, Archbishop of Esztergom and Roman 
Catholic Primate of Hungary. He said in part: 
"The history of the Hungarian House of Lords has 
never witnessed a moment of similar earnest. Not 
in our history alone but in the history of the whole 
world we look in vain for outrageous events of the 
kind which preceded this moment of earnest." He 
then went on to discuss matters in Servia and said : 
"Servia has obstinately refused to comply with our 
just demands and has proven that she does not want 
to break with her old-time policies. Thus the right 
and duty devolved upon us to extinguish the fire- 
brand at the frontier of our home country, to de- 
mand satisfaction for violated justice and order, 
and to chastise the guilty who have shed innocent 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 37 

blood. . . . It is peace and not war that we 
want, but peace which leads to life and not to death 
or extinction. If ever a war was just, it is the 
present war, which does not only conform to strict 
law, but also to the most rigorous requirements of 
morality." He ended his speech with cheers for the 
King. 

Thousands of people marched to the beautiful 
Palace of Archduke Joseph August in Buda across 
the Danube to assure him that the people of Hun- 
gary would stand by their king as they had for- 
ever in the past history of their country. Archduke 
Joseph August, who is tremendously popular with 
the people in Hungary, made a rousing patriotic 
speech. 

Offers of help, financial and otherwise, poured in 
at the Red Cross and Aid for the Wounded head- 
quarters in every city. Countess Laszlo Szechenyi, 
who was formerly Gladys Vanderbilt, offered her 
Budapest palace to the wounded of the war. The 
committee of the Social Democratic labor organiza- 
tion decided to hand one million crowns from the 
workmen compensation fund to the Hungarian 
Premier, asking him to invest it in state bonds or 
otherwise for the use of the country during the war. 

Croatians far from sympathizing with Servia 
have enthusiastically thrown in their lot with their 
fellow-countrymen in the Monarchy. The Croatian 
house regiment at Warasdin achieved wonders of 
valor In our fights with Servia. 

Of particular interest among the many declara- 



38 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

tions of loyalty was the message sent by the repre- 
sentatives of the Servian orthodox population of 
the city and district of Bihac, Bosnia and of Mos- 
tar, Herzegovina. "The people," so this message 
ran, "deemed it their most sacred duty in these 
trying moments to declare solemnly that the 
Servian orthodox population stands loyally and 
unfalteringly by the throne of His Majesty the 
Emperor and King. Nothing could shake their un- 
alterable loyalty to their sovereign and country." 
From this it can be seen that the Servians of the 
occupied provinces of Bosnia do not sympathize 
with the subversive methods of the Servians in 
Servia. 

War history has likewise already recorded the 
staunch loyalty of Roumanian-Hungarians and 
Slovak-Hungarians. The former, who have a strong 
representation of their people in the 12th army 
corps, three-quarters of the whole corps being 
chiefly Roumanian-Hungarian, received high praise 
in the Army Order of September 1st. They had 
been in the fire of the enemy for six days without 
relief and never gave way. On the 27th of August 
one single company of the 62d Regiment, which is 
chiefly composed of Roumanian-Hungarians, re- 
pulsed three Russian battalions. 

As to the latter, the 5th and 6th army corps, under 
Generals Puhallo and Boroevics, count many 
Slovak soldiers, who were congratulated repeatedly 
by the whole press for their splendid deeds on the 
Russian battlefields. During my sojourn in Hun- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 39 

gary, attempts were made by the Russians to lead 
the Slovaks to desertion and disloyalty. To this 
end the most unbelievable methods were adopted. 
Once for instance the rumor was circulated by them 
that Mr. Juriga, Slovak leader and member of the 
Hungarian Parliament, had been court-martialed 
and shot, because he was alleged to have advised his 
countrymen to abstain from fighting in the Austro- 
Hungarian army. For a few days this rumor per- 
sisted, then it was found that the rumor was "fake." 
Mr. Juriga, of course, never had been either court- 
martialed or shot and exhorted his countrymen to 
stand loyally by Austria-Hungary. 

POLES AND THE WAR. 

Without any doubt, however, two representative 
nationalities of the Monarchy were even more, and, 
if I may express myself so, personally interested 
in the war : the Poles of Galicia and the Ruthenians 
of Bukowina and Galicia and northeastern dis- 
tricts of Hungary. For these two people the war 
meant more than mere self-defense and a struggle 
to maintain national honor. It meant that the 
clock of time had struck forjthem to help to liberate 
their millions of brethren who are suffering under 
Russian yoke. 

To the Galician Poles it brought back all at once 
the memories of the glorious past of their country. 
Of Mieczyslaw I, in 962-972, their first king, who 
had married the daughter of King Boleslav of 
Bohemia, inaugurating the early traditions of these 



40 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

two people, Poles and Bohemians, which finally 
brought them together again under the common 
sceptre of the dynasty of Hapsburg and Austria- 
Hungary. In 1370-1382 Louis the Great of Hun- 
gary was also the King of Poland, and the first 
foundations of a friendship between Poles and Hun- 
garians were laid which still endures. 

In 1573 Poles looked for a king in France. They 
brought the brother of King Charles IX, Henry of 
Valois, home to their country after they had with 
great difficulty persuaded him to swear allegiance 
to their Constitution and the pacta eonventa. But 
French enthusiasm for the Polish cause has hardly 
ever outlived the glory of first moments. King 
Henry fled from the country after a few months of 
residence, during which he had never felt at 
home. 

In 1576 they selected their king again from Hun- 
gary, Transylvania electing Prince Stephen Bath- 
ory as their king. Under his reign, which lasted 
until 1586, Poland was a powerful country. The 
Baltic Sea formed its northern frontiers, the Black 
Sea its southern borders. But most glorious of 
them all was Jan Sobieski, who reigned under the 
name of John III from 1674-1694. "Let a Pole 
rule over Poland," was the slogan which elected 
him. He has gone down in history as the savior 
of Vienna against the Turks. The Turkish Grand 
Vizier, Kara Mustapha, approached Vienna with his 
army of 500,000 and all hope had been abandoned 
to save the city. Sobieski organized an army and 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 41 

joined it with the Imperial troops of Charles of 
Lorraine. On the 12th of September, 1682, these 
two eminent generals defeated and completely 
routed the enemy, who left back an immense booty. 
"Non nobis, non nobis, Domine exercituum, sed 
nomini tuo da gloriam," said Sobieski in his prayer 
before the battle started, and he saved Christianity 
from the onslaught of the Orient. 

After Sobieski, Poland's days of glory went in 
decline, until at the time of King Stanislaus Augus- 
tus Poniatowski, who was but a tool of the Czarina 
Catherine II of Russia, Poland had to submit to a 
first partition. Russia got the palatinates of 
Mscislaw and Witepsk and some other palatinates 
situated on the Dnieper, Prussia took the palatinates 
of Marienburg, the Pomorze, Warmia and a part of 
Great Poland. Austria had Red Russia or Galicia 
with parts of Podolia and Little Poland. 

In 1793 the second partition followed, giving the 
remainder of Great Poland to Prussia and Lithu- 
ania and Volhynia to Russia. 

1794 was the year of Kosciuszko's splendid but, 
owing to Russia, unsuccessful feats, which were fol- 
lowed in 1795 by the third partition of Poland. 
Austria had Cracow with the country between the 
Pilica, the Vistula and the Bug; Prussia had War- 
saw with the territory as far as the Niemen, and 
the rest, the largest part, went to Russia. At each 
successive time when an enthusiastic reform move- 
ment of the Polish patriots promised success, 
Russia intervened in behalf of the reactionaries, 



42 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

and she invariably also secured the largest slices of 
territory. 

Then came the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon 
established the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, promising 
the Poles complete freedom under the Russian rule. 
At the congress of Vienna the Kingdom of Poland 
was established, but with the Czar as a king. Aus- 
tria retained Galicia and the salt mines of Wie- 
liczka, Prussia Posen. Cracow was declared an 
independent city. 

The establishment of the Polish kingdom with 
the Czar was really a personal triumph of Prince 
Adam Czartoryski, who was a friend of the Czar 
and had done his utmost to make his countrymen 
realize that the success of their national aspirations 
was possible with Russian support only. 

Russia, gradually gaining in power after a while, 
did not need the support of the Poles any longer 
and in the name of the Czar most oppressive meas- 
ures were put in force. In the two revolutions of 
1830 and 1863 the Russian generals Paskiewitch 
and Diebitch, but above all Count Murawiew, 
initiated periods of wholesale executions against 
the Polish patriots, such as the world had never 
known until then. Henceforth, all teaching in the 
schools of Poland was in Russian only. 

In 1904, during Russia's unsuccessful war 
against Japan, however, when interior strife and 
revolutions threatened the very existence of the 
Empire, Russia again promised reform to Poland : 
Catholic religion should be taught in Polish in all 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 43 

colleges; Poles should have the right to lease and 
acquire land in the western districts; they should 
be considered in connection with appointments, 
etc. But hardly had the treaty of Portsmouth been 
signed, when Russia could not further withstand 
the "Russia for the Russians" slogan, and began 
her fight against Polish language and culture again. 

On the other hand Emperor Joseph II granted 
the Poles in Galicia agrarian reforms and generally 
tried to benefit his new subjects in every possible 
way. Under Emperor Leopold II and Emperor 
Francis a great many useful reforms were carried 
out. Galicia prospered, Russian Poland did not. 

Since 1848 Galicia's administration was placed 
on a national basis. Serfdom ceased entirely, edu- 
cation in a national Polish sense was reformed, 
national Polish literature encouraged. Polish was 
declared as the official language of the administra- 
tion and the school language. Poles were admitted 
not only to the positions of their local administra- 
tions which they had had anyway for a long time, 
but to important appointments of the Central Ad- 
ministration. 

And thus now when the clock sounded its time 
they did not hesitate a single instant, but declared 
themselves for Austria-Hungary against Russia. 
They pin their hopes on Austria-Hungary, which 
kept all her promises in the past. Their king, 
Sobieski, had once saved Vienna and Austria from 
disasters, and they know that Austria-Hungary 
will always be grateful. 



U AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

Shortly after the outbreak of the war, George 
Zulawski, the great Polish poet, addressed a warm 
appeal to all Poles. This is part of the appeal : 
"Prince Joseph Poniatowski said during the 
battle of Leipzig, 1812 : 'The honor of our Polish 
nation has been intrusted to me by God, I can 
yield it to God only.' One hundred years have 
elapsed since. Times have changed. France, 
which had formerly deceived and cheated the 
Poles, has now openly and shamelessly embraced 
Russia's cause. Our former adversaries are now 
our allies. Our fight continues. Poland's arch- 
enemy has not changed, nor has the honor of our 
nation. 

"We stand to-day by Austria and do not doubt 
for a moment her good-will. Let the Grand Duke 
Nicholas juggle with promises never meant to be 
kept; we know how we are treated here. After 
having lost our liberty we have found in this 
monarchy, the most liberal in Europe, shelter and 
protection. 

"We are full-fledged citizens, we enjoy here 
the liberty of autonomy and of our national ad- 
vance. We like to consider past deeds, for they 
are the best securities of a future. A hundred 
years ago Polish volunteers donned the French 
tricolor, which was then a symbol of liberty. To- 
day the Polish volunteers carry the black and 
yellow Austrian colors. We carry them without 
offense to our national feelings, as they represent 
a symbol of a state which grants to its citizens 






AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 45 

the largest amount of liberty and which together 
with Poland represents the gate against the bar- 
barian floods from the East. 

"We have the right and duty to fight for Aus- 
tria and against the common enemy, and in the 
face of history's great tribunal it is Austria's 
duty to support us. Aside from all other con- 
siderations, Austria, by supporting us, supports 
herself, simultaneously carrying out her great 
historical mission : to be a haven of liberty to all 
the people suppressed by Russia. 

"We have strong faith in our good cause, in the 
victory of liberty and culture and in the ultimate 
complete defeat of Russia. But whatever the 
fate on the battlefields may be, we will not change 
our attitude. 

"Today, God has intrusted the honor of the 
Polish nation to us, Polish volunteers, and we 
will return it into the hands of God only. 

"This is the honor of the nation which gave us 
a Zawisza and a Poniatowski. We will yield it 
unto the hands of God only, and we have strong 
faith that we will return it untarnished on the 
day when liberty will triumph over bondage, 
truth over falsehood, light over darkness. So 
help us, God!" 

After the outbreak of war Polish volunteer 
legions were at once organized, until their number 
amounted to 200,000. Russia, seeing the danger 
from the Polish population arrayed against her, 



46 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

gave out orders that no quarter should be given to 
a member of a Polish legion. If fallen into the 
hands of their troops he should be hanged forth- 
with. Thereupon, on October 1st, our Government 
sent a circular note to all neutral powers concern- 
ing the Polish legions. The qualification of these 
legions, so this note states, was clearly established. 
They comply with all requirements contained in the 
first part of the statutes governing rules of a land 
war. They are moreover an organized part of the 
Austro-Hungarian army. Their members have 
sworn the oath to the flag. Their subdivisions are 
commanded by officers of the Austro-Hungarian 
army and their general is under the orders of the 
Austro-Hungarian command. If Russia would 
maintain her attitude of not recognizing these 
Polish legions as regular soldiers, this would con- 
stitute a breach of the Hague rules. 

RUTHENIANS AND THE WAR. 

As regards the Ruthenians in Galicia and Buko- 
wina, I will have occasion to mention them in an- 
other chapter. They have a proud history reach- 
ing back as far as the tenth century. One of their 
rulers, Prince Volodymir Monomach, was married 
to King Harold of England's daughter, and his 
daughter became Queen of France. Their princi- 
pality, which had Kiew as capital, prospered during 
many centuries. In 1654 they signed the treaty of 
Perejaslaw with the northern Russian principali- 
ties of which Moscow was then the capital. The 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 47 

so-called "Swod sakonow" secured full liberties to 
Ukrainia, as their land was called, in regard to 
administration matters, administration of justice, 
law, finances, foreign representation, army matters, 
etc. Very shortly thereafter, however, Russians re- 
voked this treaty, conquering and oppressing their 
country. Under I wan Mazeppa in the beginning of 
the eighteenth century, when Charles XII of Swe- 
den celebrated his triumphs, the Ukrainians made 
an effort to regain their independence. After the 
battle of Poltawa, however, they came under the 
Russian yoke, under which they have remained since 
then. Russia's policy to the Ukrainians has been 
one constant effort to denationalize them, until even 
their history was juggled away and their language 
declared to be nothing but a "small Russian 
dialect." 

Ruthenians in Galicia on the other hand have 
been treated well by Austria, and to them the war 
represents the ray of future hope. They have given 
splendid account of themselves in the various 
fights. But above all their venerable Primate of the 
Greek Oriental Church in Czernowitz, the Right 
Reverend Vladimir Repta, has already become a 
historic figure through this war. When Russian 
soldiers, who had penetrated to Czernowitz, capital 
of Bukowina, were asked by their commanders to 
arrange a pogrom against the Jews, the Primate 
had the Jews take refuge in his palace. Questioned 
by the Russian governor why he did this, and what 
his confession was, he replied : it was the religion 



48 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

of God. He was the servant of God, before whom 
everybody was equal and who meted out justice to 
everybody alike. After the alleged Russian victory 
of Augustovo he was asked to hold a high mass. 
He, however, declared that he had sworn an oath of 
allegiance and loyalty to the Emperor and King 
Francis Joseph and he would keep it. The high 
mass was not celebrated. 

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY DEFENDER OF CHRISTIANITY. 

What has caused all the people of the monarchy 
to join hands in the supreme moments when war 
could be no more averted and what has kept them 
together with such firmness and enthusiasm since 
then ? General predictions were freely given round 
in the foreign press of Europe, also in a consid- 
erable part of the press of the United States, that 
this war's first result w T ould not be a lost battle, 
but Austria-Hungary's collapse. War came and 
the Monarchy has once again proven its traditional 
vitality, which was always strongest when a strong 
peril from without had to be resisted. 

There are two chief reasons which account for 
this auspicious result. One is that the people of 
the monarchy have always considered themselves 
as the defenders of Christianity against the on- 
slaught of the Orient. So was Hungary at the time 
of King Bela IV the bulwark of Christendom 
against the wild hordes of the Tartars and Mon- 
golians. Hungary's fertile grounds were devas- 
tated, thousands of its people were massacred, but 



/ 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 49 

Hungary lived and the west of Europe was saved 
from the Tartar invasion. 

Then came the centuries of Turkish invasions, 
the glorious victories of John Hunyadi and his son, 
King Mathias Corvinus, over the Turkish hosts. 
But the battle of Mohacs in 1526 brought disaster 
to the Hungarian army, and Hungary became a 
tributary of the Ottoman Porte for many years to 
come. 

In 1682 Jan Sobieski and Charles of Lorraine 
saved Vienna and Europe from the strongest attack 
Turkey ever had launched against it. Prince Eugen 
of Savoy, the victor of Zenta and of many other 
battles, was the last great general in our list of 
Defenders of Christian Faith. 

The war of 1914 has revived Austria-Hungary's 
old mission. Austria-Hungary has to fight Russia. 

Perhaps my American readers will question why 
I have placed Russia in the ranks of our former 
enemies from Asia. 

In 1909, when I came back from Peking across 
Siberia, my travelling companion was the then First 
Secretary of the Russian Legation, Monsieur d'Ar- 
senieff. As his present enemy I will say that he 
was a delightful companion. The Siberian trip 
lasted two weeks, and as we shared one compart- 
ment in the Russian State Express during this long 
time we had frequent discussions on various sub- 
jects together. Having known him for some time 
in Peking, I asked him one day how long he would 
spend his vacation in Europe. "I will not spend it 



50 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

there at all. I will stay in Russia," answered he. 
This answer surprised me and I asked him why he 
excluded Russia from Europe. "Russia is not 
Europe. Russia whether in Asia or Europe is 
simply Russia." 

This answer demonstrates the typical Russian 
view. Russia has millions of Buddhists and Lama- 
ists among its subjects in Asia. Its religion is 
nominally the Russian Orthodox Church, but in 
reality it is Czarism. The Holy Synod sent out its 
"apostles" to our Ruthenians in Galicia, Bukowina 
and parts of Hungary to win them over to the Rus- 
sian Church. These apostles were gradually trans- 
formed into political emissaries of the Czar. The 
Russian Orthodox Church and the Holy Synod are 
merely the mouthpiece of Czarism and the Czar. 
Russia says : We fight for the liberation and union 
of all Slavs. What she really means is: Czarism 
wants to eternify its own rule over all countries 
which still have Slav subjects among their other 
subjects. 

In Austria-Hungary there may be no uniform 
national idea prevalent, but the common past, com- 
mon history, common interests have welded all its 
people together into a union which assures an equal 
measure of happiness to everybody, and will suc- 
cessfully repel all external attacks against its exist- 
ence. The Slavs who live under the monarchy's 
rule enjoy a much greater amount of rights, 
personal and public, than in Russia. Austria-Hun- 
gary is a modern empire, where everybody can 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 51 

freely develop bis innate talents. In Russia almost 
all individual development is suppressed. Against 
the invasion of Czarism Austria-Hungary fights 
therefore today as she did against the invasion of 
Tartars, Mongols and Turks centuries ago, when 
the foundations of her Christian Empire were 
threatened. The defense of Christian civilization 
has still continued to be her great historic mission. 
The people today pray as Jan Sobieski did when 
he waged his great battle against the Turks : "Non 
nobis, non nobis, Domine exercituum sed nomini 
tuo da gloriam." 

FRANCIS JOSEPH AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

There is another reason, and this is, I might say, 
Austria-Hungary's personal reason in contraposi- 
tion to the former, which was her historic reason. 
This second reason is expressed in the manifesto of 
our venerable Emperor and King. In former cen- 
turies the call to arms in some countries, especially 
in Hungary, was the sending around of a bloody 
sword. That would have met with little response 
in our days. 

This is part of his manifesto which was addressed 
to the people of Austria-Hungary : 

"It was my sincerest wish to devote to the work 
of peace the years which the Grace of God hac 
granted me to preserve my peoples from the 
heavy burdens and sacrifices of war. 

"Divine providence decreed otherwise. 



52 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

"The activities of an opponent led by hatred 
compel me to reach for the sword after long years 
of peace in order to maintain the honor of my 
monarchy, to preserve her prestige and reputa- 
tion and to safeguard her possessions." 

And after enumerating the iniquities done by 
Servia it continues: 

"And so I am compelled to create with the 
power of arms the necessary guarantees to safe- 
guard the interior tranquillity and the lasting ex- 
terior peace for my countries. 

"In these serious hours I am fully conscious of 
the full extent of my decision and of my respon- 
sibility before the Almighty. I have examined 
and weighed everything. 

"With a quiet conscience, I take the road that 
duty shows me. I trust in my peoples that 
ranged themselves at all tempestuous times in 
unity and loyalty around my throne and were 
always ready to make the biggest sacrifice for the 
honor, grandeur and might of the fatherland. 

"I trust in the valiant armed force of Austria- 
Hungary inspired by loyal enthusiasm. 

"And I trust in the Almighty that he may give 
victory to my arms." 

Forty-eight years have come and gone by in the 
wake of peace for our country. But these forty- 
eight years and many more before them have been 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 53 

no years of personal peace to the venerable ruler 
of our monarchy. No personal grief, no known 
human suffering has been spared to him. And yet 
they have not borne him down, nor have they been 
able to shake his sense of duty. In the supreme 
moments of trial, he stood up, always ready at the 
helm, leading his people with the undaunted spirit 
of a seer. He believed in them and the future of 
Austria-Hungary. And the people of Austria-Hun- 
gary believe in him, because his words spell faith. 
I In the history of mankind there is probably but 
one proclamation which equals the former in sim- 
plicity, directness and sincereness of language. This 
is President Abraham Lincoln's exhortation to the 
people not to plunge into civil war. This is part 
of his exhortation : 

"Fellow-citizens : The momentous case is before 
you. On your undivided support of your Govern- 
ment depends the decision of the great question 
it involves, whether your sacred Union will be 
preserved, and the blessings it secured to us as one 
people shall be perpetuated. No one can doubt 
that the unanimity with which that decision will 
be expressed will be such as to inspire new con- 
fidence in republican institutions, and that the 
prudence, the wisdom, and the courage which it 
will bring to their defense will transmit them 
unimpaired and invigorated to our children. 
May the Great Ruler of Nations grant that the 
signal blessings with which He has favored us 



54 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

may not by the madness of party, or personal am- 
bition, be disregarded and lost, and may His wise 
providence bring those who have produced this 
crisis to see the folly before they feel the misery 
of civil strife, and inspire a returning veneration 
for that Union which, if we may dare to pene- 
trate His designs, He has chosen as the only 
means of attaining the highest destinies to which 
we may reasonably aspire.' ' 

In both instances momentous events had 
prompted the issuance of these proclamations. In 
both instances the people had supreme confidence 
and faith in their respective leaders. Men who can 
inspire such sublime confidence in the hearts of 
their people that their words become the gospel of 
faith are the truly great men of world's history. 



IL— WAS THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN NOTE* 
TO SERVIA BRUTAL? 

"Liberty" is the title of a statement of the British 
case sent out a few weeks ago by Arnold Bennett to 
the Saturday Evening Post. Liberty! The title 
seems appropriate for that reason only that in no 
statement on the war is there more liberty displayed 
in the use of superlative invectives against a whole 
people and nation than in this one. All the white- 
heat venom that an intelligent human being can 
absorb in the course of a lifetime is injected into 
this article. One might say the author saved it up 
since the first days of his childhood and diffused it 
all at once in one supreme effort. It is regrettable 
that an author of the world reputation of Mr. 
Bennett should think that the abuse of a whole 
nation constitutes his own country's strongest 
defense. 

Mr. Bennett, after pronouncing the dictum that 
"the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by 
Austria- Hungary in 1908 was an outrage upon the 
feelings of the inhabitants," proceeds to explain 
"how the German and Austrian branches of the 
military worked in secret together. How when they 
had reached a decision" — and not before, according 
to Mr. Bennett's special information — "the German 

* The note and answer thereto are reprinted in the appendix. 

55 



56 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

Imperial Chancellor and the German Foreign Sec- 
retary were permitted to learn the inwardness of 
the state of affairs," whatever that is. "And then," 
he continues, "an impossible ultimatum was sent to 
Servia, and the thing was done. The fall on the 
bourses, before the delivery of the Servian reply, 
showed that the supreme financial magnates had 
been 'put wise.' Every embassy knew. All diplomacy 
was futile and most of it was odiously hypocritical. 
Sir Edward Grey alone in Europe strove against 
the irrevocable. With the most correct urbanity 
Germany frustrated him at each move. Neither 
France nor Italy desired aught but peace. Whether 
or not Russia desired war I cannot say" (evidently 
Mr. Bennett's private, confidential informants had 
failed in this instance) ; "but it is absolutely certain 
that Germany and Austria desired war." 

Austria-Hungary's ultimatum to Servia has been 
called by various authors "brutal," "inhuman," "un- 
speakable," "the act of a dotard," etc. In the Sep- 
tember 30th issue of the Outlook we find the follow- 
ing expressive comments : "The demand of Austria 
was both in form and in tone such as one inde- 
pendent power could not be expected to receive 
from another independent power without resent- 
ment." It might be said here that the first impres- 
sion counts, and the first impression of this Austro- 
Hungarian note filtered through the published 
correspondence of the English White Paper. Sir 
Edward Grey, in his letter to the British Ambassa- 
dor at Berlin, said of it : "I have never before seen 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 57 

one state address to another independent state a 
document of so formidable a character." 

The public in general has long been accustomed 
to form its opinion regarding diplomatic or political 
questions through the opinions expressed thereon 
by the diplomatic and political leaders of approved 
calling and authority. This is a sound enough cus- 
tom and cannot be objected to. In presenting this 
little study to the American public I <Jo not propose 
to except to this well established habit of mind of 
larger masses. Nor do I wish to cast any doubt on 
Sir Edward's authority to comment on the nature 
of this ultimatum. I will endeavor, however, to 
demonstrate that the Austro-Hungarian note will 
appear very much less brutal both in tone and 
in substance if we investigate conditions which 
prompted it. 

In a general sense the critics of this war have al- 
lowed their minds to sway too easily under the in- 
fluence of outward appearances and maudlin senti- 
ment. Let us penetrate under the surface of things, 
let us examine and weigh some of the evidence 
which the recent Sarajevo trial has brought to 
light! Let us consider the psychological side of 
the relations between Austria-Hungary and Servia 
during the years preceding this note ! A little light 
and a little more thoroughness than we have noticed 
heretofore in comments on this and other phases of 
the war will go far towards dispelling false impres- 
sions. If faults were committed, they should be ex- 
posed, but on the other hand, if blame was attached 



58 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

unjustly, it should be lifted and justice done where 
justice is due. 

Of all the war comments made in the United 
States none has shown a more neutral spirit and 
at the same time been more accurate in its con- 
clusions than United States Circuit Court Judge 
Grosscup's appeal to fair judgment. I say so not 
because his views coincide with mine, or because 
he favors my country's side, but because it is, I be- 
lieve, a typically American statement and will, this 
I also believe, appeal to every fair-minded American 
reader. 

JUDGE PETER GROSSCUP'S VIEWS. 

I will cite here his remarks bearing on the ques- 
tion of this chapter in extenso, because what we all 
aim at is truth and justice, and nobody has grasped 
these two tenets in connection with the war better 
than he did. This is what he says : 

"The other day I saw a group of men in a lane 
some distance from the road, who seemed to be in 
earnest conversation. Suddenly one of the men 
struck one of the others. Immediately I felt that 
he was the aggressor, that he wished a fight. But 
the facts, had I been near enough to see and hear, 
might have been different. That first blow as I 
saw it may have been in self-defense ; I was not near 
enough to the other's clenched fist. It may have 
been deserved; I was not near enough to hear the 
provocation. What is the only thing visible to one 
at a distance may not have been the fact at all as 
seen by those upon the spot." 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 59 

"Though the White Paper covers five pages of the 
American newspaper in which I found it, the essen- 
tial facts pertinent to this larger question are few 
and can be compactly stated. The first of these, 
trite enough but never to be lost sight of, is that 
the Austro-Hungarian monarchy contains a very 
large Slav population — the race of the Servians also 
— some of it added in recent years. This constituted, 
to say the least, a highly inflammable anti- Austrian 
material to any one disposed to start a fire within 
the Austro-Hungarian boundaries. Another fact, 
not so trite but equally important, is that Servia 
has been systematically distributing firebrands 
throughout this inflammable matter. "It was a 
subversive movement," says the Austrian foreign 
Minister in one of the dispatches constituting the 
White Paper, intended to detach from Austria a 
part of her empire, carried on by organized societies 
in Servia, to which Servian high officials, including 
ministers, generals and judges, belonged, and re- 
sulting in the assassination of the heir to the throne 
and his wife," not as the individual mad deed of a 
Guiteau or a Czolgosz, we might add, but as "an 
organized propaganda and conspiracy" that de- 
veloped itself in several attempts, at several uncon- 
nected points, by several persons, on the same day ; 
a statement of the Servian attitude nowhere denied 
in this English White Paper, either in the London 
Foreign Office or the embassies at Paris or St. Peters- 
burg. On the contrary, Sir Edward Grey says he 
cannot help but look with sympathy on the basis 



60 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

of the Austro-Hungarian complaint. And Servia 
herself practically admits the truth of it, in her 
reply to the Austrian ultimatum; for though she 
calls whatever agitation took place "political," that 
is to say, something whose object is the change of 
government and not private murder, she offers to 
dissolve the Narodna Odbrana, a revolutionary so- 
ciety, and every society which may be "directing its 
efforts against Austria-Hungary"; to introduce a 
law providing for the most severe punishment of 
"publications calculated to incite hatred against 
the territorial integrity of Austria" ; to remove from 
the "public educational establishments" in Servia 
everything calculated to foment propaganda against 
Austria; to publish in the official gazette and read 
to the army this promised new attitude of Servia to 
Austria; and to remove from military service all 
such persons as judicial inquiry may have proved 
to be guilty of acts directed against the integrity 
of the territory of Austria-Hungary — promises no 
people would make unless there was a basis of fact 
for the complaint. 

But though Servia thus acknowledged the basis 
of the complaint, and promised to take measures to 
remedy it, she refused the "collaboration" of Aus- 
trian representatives, or the participation of Aus- 
trian "delegates," in the investigation relating 
thereto. She made no straight-out denial of the 
subversive movements alleged. The most that can 
be made of her answer is that she neither admits 
nor denies, but simply calls for the proofs. But she 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 61 

refused the presence of Austria at the taking of 
the proofs. In a word, as Austria viewed it, should 
the promised investigation be a whitewash, or 
should it be a sincere effort to locate responsibility? 
Austria wanted a sincere investigation ; the attitude 
of Servia looks as if she wanted a whitewash. And 
it was on that that the two countries broke. 

Now, was Austria-Hungary right in making the 
demand and Servia wrong in refusing the demand, 
that Austrian delegates sit in at the investigation? 
This is the crux of the matter as a question between 
Austria and Servia. The conduct of nations, like 
that of individuals, must stand the test of common 
sense, and, like individuals, nations have the right 
to have their word taken in matters of this kind 
until their word is no longer good, by being re- 
peatedly broken; so that had this been the first 
complaint by Austria against Servia on this mat- 
ter, and this Servia's first promise to live hereafter 
on friendly relations, there would have been no 
justification for Austria's demand, or for her re- 
fusal to take Servians word that a fair investigation 
would be made and the guilty punished. But this 
White Paper shows that this was not Servia's first 
promise; that she had made former promises; that 
this new offer of her word was the offer of an al- 
ready broken word. This is the third fact in the 
inquiry, the turning fact in the question of who was 
wrong and who was right; a fact entirely ignored 
in the views pressed upon Amerian public opinion. 
Five years before, March 18, 1909, Servia gave her 



62 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

word, not to Austria alone, but to the Great Powers, 
that this scattering of firebrands should cease, that 
thereafter she would live as a friendly neighbor. 
That shows that five years before the offense was 
already in existence. Did it cease? Was the word 
kept? In the note communicated to Sir Edward 
Grey by the German Ambassador July 24th, 1914 — 
a note that called out from Sir Edward, not a de- 
nial, but an expression of sympathy — the German 
Ambassador, referring to that earlier promise, says : 
"It was only owing to the far-reaching self-restraint 
and moderation of the Austro-Hungarian govern- 
ment, and to the energetic interference of the Great 
Powers, that the Servian provocation to which 
Austria-Hungary was then (March, 1909) exposed 
did not lead to a conflict. The assurance of good 
conduct in the future which was then given by the 
Servian government has not been kept. Under the 
eyes, at least with the tacit permission of official 
Servia, the great Servian propaganda has continu- 
ously increased in extension and intensity; to its 
account must be set the recent crime the threads of 
which lead to Belgrade"; an indictment that none 
of the Powers so much as question — neither the 
foreign offices nor embassies of Russia, England or 
France — and to which Servia practically pleads 
guilty in her answer to the Austrian ultimatum 
already stated. 

Now, in view of that, what was Austria-Hungary 
to do? Accept the word of Servia again? We must 
look at it not from the standpoint of those who think 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 63 

the Austro-Hungarian government ought to be de- 
stroyed, but from the standpoint of Austria-Hun- 
gary itself. What would we of America do if, 
despite a solemn promise to desist, some neighbor- 
ing nation continued to stir up racial revolution 
among our people — say Spain among the Porto 
Ricans or Philippines? Would we accept that na- 
tion's word again? It is a just and generous nature 
that accepts the offender's word on the first offense, 
but a foolish or craven nature that continues to 
accept it through repetitions of the offense. Let 
us not lose sight of the practical side of the problem 
as presented to Austria. The spirit behind these 
attacks on Austria-Hungary was not the spirit of 
the Servian government only, but the spirit of the 
Servian people also. A government may be reached 
sometimes by protest. But there are cases in which 
a people can only be reached by some tangible 
military demonstration. History is replete with 
demonstrations of that kind; so that the problem 
of Austria, now that the government's word could 
no longer be taken, was to impress the people of 
Servia with Austria-Hungary's purpose not to be 
silent longer under these flying firebrands. We 
went to war with Spain for less than Austria was 
suffering at the hands of Servia. England declared 
war on the republic of Paul Kruger for less. And 
in each case the war closed with territory detached 
from the vanquished and taken by the victor. Were 
we wrong? More than that : Did any great outside 
Power even say nay? On the contrary we were left 



64 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

to deal with the problems as we thought right. 
Why, then, should any outside Power say nay to 
Austria, especially if no territory was to be taken? 
Morally right in her demand on Seryia, to sit 
in at the investigation, why was not Austria left 
alone to enforce that right, as England, the United 
States, and Italy had been left to enforce their 
rights?" 

THE MURDER OF PRINCE MICHAEL OBRENOVIC. 

Judge Grosscup states the issue underlying the 
Austro-Hungarian note clearly, and his statement 
requires hardly any further amplification. There 
is, however, one item which can be amplified. Servia 
was asked to admit Austro-Hungarian government 
officers to the preliminary investigations of the 
murder plot in Sarajevo which claimed the Austro- 
Hungarian Crown Prince and his consort as victims. 
Whenever this question has formed the subject of 
discussion in newspapers or other statements, we 
have always read utterances such as the following, 
for instance: "Had Servia yielded to this demand 
she would have forfeited her rights as an indepen- 
dent state. No self-respecting state could have 
tolerated an interference of so humiliating a 
nature." 

To a superficial observer, as I said before, the 
conclusion reached in these utterances seemed cor- 
rect and sufficient. In reality, however, this con- 
clusion misses the point entirely. Austria-Hun- 
gary's demand involved a friendly cooperation of 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 65 

Austro-Hungarian and Servian government officers 
and was based on historical precedents. On June 
10th, 1868, Prince Michael Obrenovic of Servia was 
murdered near the Royal Park of Topsider in Bel- 
grade. In the course of the investigation of this 
murder plot Servia asked the government of Hun- 
gary that some of her government officers should 
be allowed to participate in the investigation which 
was conducted in Hungary, as the murder was 
traced to Servians residing mostly in Southern 
Hungary. This demand was practically identical 
with the Austro-Hungarian demand in the present 
crisis. Hungary readily acceded to this demand, 
finding it a most natural demand to make under 
the given circumstances. Hungary desired to show 
her friendly feelings to the neighboring country, 
and no attempt was even made to construe this as 
an encroachment of Hungary's suzerainty or inde- 
pendence. 

Hungary in 1868-1870 had nothing to conceal, 
and was, therefore, keen to lend a hand in tracing 
the murderers; Servia in 1914 is apparently in a 
different position. Should an unbiased examina- 
tion substantiate the claim that the Servian Govern- 
ment and the Crown Prince of Servia were directly 
behind this murder plot, it would naturally destroy 
the prestige of Servia forever. The Sarajevo trial, 
as I have shown in another chapter, has substan- 
tiated Austria-Hungary's charges contained in her 
note. Whatever the conclusions from this trial 
evidence may be, with regard to Servia's prestige, 



66 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

Servia can no more disclaim responsibility, of that 
we feel confident. 

In 1868-1870 after the actual murderers of Prince 
Michael Obrenovic had expiated their crime, 
strong evidence was presented against Prince Alex- 
ander Karagyorgyevic, a close kin of the present 
King of Servia, connecting him directly with the 
murder. Servia herself asked the Hungarian Gov- 
ernment to carry out the death sentence against the 
last named Prince. Hungary, desiring to be chival- 
rous to both the Prince, who had formerly taken 
refuge in Hungary and who had appealed for her 
help, and to Servia, spared the Prince's life. She 
instituted, however, a court examination with 
Servian cooperation to find out whether according 
to Hungarian law he had committed a crime for 
which he should suffer punishment. As a result 
of this examination it was found that Prince Alex- 
ander Karagyorgyevic, his secretary, Paul Trifkovic, 
and Filip Stankovic, a merchant, were guilty of the 
crimes charged against them. Mr. Sztrokay, the 
District-Attorney of Budapest, asked that the Prince 
should be sentenced to death, Stankovic to twenty, 
Trifkovic to fifteen years' hard labor. This is what 
the indictment of the defendants said : Paul Rado- 
vanovic, one of the chief plotters, who was the at- 
torney of Prince Karagyorgyevic and had full 
authority to handle his affairs in Servia, confessed 
that he had agreed with the Prince in 1867 that 
Prince Michael of Servia should be murdered if 
necessary and he, Prince Alexander, should be- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 67 

come his successor. To this purpose Radovanovic 
was paid some large amounts by Vilotievic, who 
was the manager of the Prince's estate in Servia. 
The indictment admits that Radovanovic later on 
withdrew his confession damaging to the Prince; 
this withdrawal, however, was not made bona fide. 
Radovanovic had written a letter to Trifkovic in 
which he promised to withdraw that part of his 
confession which was damaging to the Prince, if in 
return the latter would pay 30,000 florins to his 
family. Radovanovic identified this letter in an 
open court hearing as his own. Furthermore, 
Vilotievic, the above-named manager of the Prince's 
estate, confessed that the Prince and Trifkovic had 
told him in 1867 in Budapest that they were pre- 
paring a plot against Prince Michael. He was told 
that if he cared for his position he would have to 
help them and pay Radovanovic whenever called 
upon by this latter. Later on Vilotievic received 
27,000 florins from Trifkovic, the Prince's secre- 
tary. Prince Alexander personally and verbally in- 
structed him to pay said amount to Radovanovic 
after the murder of Prince Michael. Prince Alex- 
ander, in his capacity as defendant in this murder 
case, declared in court that he had only money 
enough to support himself and his family in a 
decent way befitting his rank. It was shown, how- 
ever, by ample evidence that the Prince had received 
large amounts from Russia and Roumania prior to 
the murder, and had, moreover, sold his house in 
Budapest for 100,000 florins. 



68 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

The indictment also shows that one Stanko 
Zdrafkovic, the lessee of a restaurant owned by 
Prince Alexander in Belgrade, had confessed that 
the Prince had reduced his rent by 150 gold ducats, 
provided he would rent a room to one Filip Stanko- 
vic, and would not see or hear what happened there. 
Paul Trifkovic, the secretary of the Prince, was the 
second defendant. He is shown in the indictment 
to have been in correspondence with Radovanovic 
since the year 1860. They met whenever this latter 
came to Budapest. Their correspondence was ef- 
fected in ciphers, as w T as the correspondence of all 
defendants. In 1868 they met in Temesvar, where 
Radovanovic one day handed Trifkovic a plan of an 
amended constitution, asking him to have it signed 
by the Prince if this latter ever expected to ascend 
the throne of Servia. Trifkovic confessed that upon 
instructions from Radovanovic he had three six- 
cylinder revolvers and three daggers with sharpened 
points on both ends manufactured in Budapest. 
These were given to Radovanovic, and both this lat- 
ter and Lazar Marsic confessed that the murder had 
been committed with these weapons. 

Filip Stankovic was the third defendant. Ac- 
cording to the testimony of Anthony Maistorovic 
and Dome Kuzmanovic he had received 2,000 ducats 
from the wife of Prince Alexander, Princess Per- 
sida, to stir up a revolution in Servia. At another 
occasion he had received 100 ducats from Prince 
Alexander himself for the same purpose. Stankovic 
and Maistorovic had moreover arranged that Prince 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 69 

Alexander should keep 20,000 gold ducats on de- 
posit with a banker called Spirka to provide for 
the expenses of a revolution in Servia. 

Prince Alexander Karagyorgyevic, who was a 
very close blood relative of the present King of 
Servia, was sentenced to death, but judgment was 
later on quashed. 

I then come back to what Judge Grosscup says : 
"It is a just and generous nature that accepts 
the offender's word on the first offense, but a foolish 
or craven nature that continues to accept it through 
repetitions of the offense." In contra-position to 
this I refer to another writer's statement, which is 
also reproduced in this book : "The world does not 
believe that the boy, Prinzip, was the agent of the 
Servian Government. No government would be so 
blind as to inspire a deed which must so redound 
to its disadvantage and its discredit." The latter 
writer erred in his conclusions because he was 
superficial. But many have erred just as he has, 
simply because they did not have the proper prem- 
ises to draw conclusions from. Austria-Hungary's 
conclusions were based on the proper premises 
which she had set up in her experience in the 
past. Servia had broken her word on March 18, 
1909, when she pledged it to us and to the Great 
European powers that she would henceforth be a 
good neighbor to the monarchy. From the very 
next day after she had made this pledge she set out 
to break it openly and less openly just as it suited 
her plans. The Great Powers having frowned on her 



70 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

ambitions she strove resolutely to attain her ends, 
by hook or crook. We have the court evidence of the 
Sarajevo trial to corroborate these statements. 
The building up of the Narodna Odbrana and of a 
whole chain of affiliated societies to advocate a 
revolutionary propaganda against Austria-Hun- 
gary could not even by her warmest sympathizer 
be interpreted as the acts of a good neighbor. But 
this was not all. As we can gather from the trial 
evidence, she has done everything to vilify Austria- 
Hungary's character in the foreign press, to create 
the impression that while she had broken her pledges 
she had ample justification for doing so. Has not 
Servia broken faith with the powers before 1909? 
It is a matter of common knowledge and substan- 
tiated by incontrovertible facts that although the 
reigning dynasty of Karagyorgyevic and King 
Peter had pledged to punish the late King Alexan- 
der's murderers, many of these murderers' con- 
federates have occupied important public positions 
with the Servian Government up to the last. Every- 
body knows that Great Britain has for a long time 
entertained no diplomatic relations with Servia for 
reasons which seemed obvious then, but have drifted 
into oblivion now. Why? Because Servia enter- 
tains a highly efficient press bureau in the United 
States and other countries, and people are so quick 
to forget things, if they happen to be either too 
much or too little interested in matters or persons. 
The psychology of a country's population is gov- 
erned by the same causes as is governed the psy- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 71 

chology of an individual. If an individual has 
some knowledge of things, this is increased and 
steadied by a life's experience. If he has none of 
his own making, life's experience will supply him 
with a good substitute. And so it is with the people 
of a country. Whether of primitive or high culture, 
knowledge and civilization, their country's tradi- 
tions and past experience will help to increase and 
steady whatever they may have attained of their 
own. What are the traditions of Servia's people? 
Servians are temperamentally light-hearted, joyous 
and frivolous, not devoid of a great many artistic 
features. Yet, is there any country in the world 
which can equal, for instance, the long list of rulers 
assassinated on or around their country's throne? 

CHRONOLOGY OF SERVIAN REGICIDES. 

Almost from the earliest beginnings of a Servian 
country, Servian kings and princes have very sel- 
dom died a natural death. 

1. In 902 of the Christian era Prince Klonimir, 
a descendant of the first Servian prince, KnazVlasz- 
timir, was murdered by the orders of his rival, 
Prince Peter. 

2. In 917 this same Prince Peter was murdered 
by his subjects. 

3. Prince John Vladimir, the great grandson of 
Knaz Vlasztimir, was murdered by his subjects on 
May 22, 1015. 

4. His successor, Prince Stefan Vojszl6, died 
under suspicious circumstances. 



72 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

The next dynasty was that of the Nemanyidas. 
Their princes died either on the battlefields or 
were killed by their subjects. 

5. Prince Stefan Uros was murdered by the 
orders of his son, Dragutin, in Durazzo, 1272. 

6. Prince Stefan Uros III was murdered by 
Servian noblemen in the castle of Jovecan, Septem- 
ber, 1331. 

Dragutin later on assumed the name of Dusan, 
and was the greatest sovereign Servia ever has had. 
Curiously enough, he died a natural death. 

7. His son, Prince Stefan Uros, was assassinated 
by his subjects in 1367. This ended the dynasty 
of the Nemanyidas, as his mother, after his murder, 
retired to a convent. His murderer, a Servian 
noble by the name of Vukasin, had been raised to 
rank and honors by Czar Dusan, the father of the 
last named prince, and it was in murdering the 
latter's son that he paid off his debt of gratitude. 
However, he could not avoid his fate. Sultan 
Bajazid suddenly attacked him and his army of 
60,000 men. 

8. Prince Vukasin fled but was attacked and 
murdered by his own troops, who wanted to get 
hold of his large golden chain. His corpse was 
buried without the head. 

9. Vukasin's son, Prince Marko the! Superb, 
was murdered, for a change, not by his own sub- 
jects, but by a "vallach" man. 

His successor was his uncle 

10. Prince John Ugljesa, who was killed by 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 73 

Lazar, the natural son of Czar Dusan. Lazar's 
son-in-law, Prince Milos, killed 

11. Sultan Murad I, whereupon Prince Lazar 
was decapitated by the Turks. His successor, 
Prince George Brankovic, died a natural death, 
but his consort, 

12. Princess Irene, was poisoned by her young- 
est son, 

13. Lazar. This latter then ascended the throne, 
but soon died under suspicious circumstances. 

The dynasty of the Brankovic died out in 1516 
with Prince George Brankovic. Thereafter Servia 
came under Turkish yoke and there were no kings 
or princes to be murdered for quite a while. 

14. In modern times Prince Michael Obrenovic 
was murdered in 1868, upon the instigation of 
Prince Alexander Karagyorgyevic, a very close kin 
of the present King Peter. 

15. King Alexander of Servia and 

16. Queen Draga were killed in 1903. 

Do such traditions leave no trace on the psy- 
chology of a people's mind? The stories told to 
their children in the nurse's room, repeated and am- 
plified in the schools which their boys frequented, 
revelled and gloried in the bloody exploits of the 
glorious past. Is it to be wondered that when their 
boys grew up, the taste of blood seemed not strange 
to them? They had by this time grown accustomed 
to the assassinations of their own princes, their 
own leaders in public life. They could not under- 
stand why Austria-Hungary should have objected 



74 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

to their killing or attempting to kill Austro-Hun- 
garian governors, generals or archdukes. If these 
assassinations were necessary to attain their ends 
— which was, let us say, the union of all southern 
Slavs in a greater Servian empire or republic — 
then the only thing that could be objected to was 
that some of these murderous attempts proved un- 
successful. Failure delayed the realization of these 
ends. 

COULD THE SERVIAN QUESTION HAVE BEEN 
ARBITRATED? 

I have often heard, in these past months, ques- 
tions why Austria-Hungary did not submit her dif- 
ference with Servia to international arbitration. 
Servia had made an offer of this kind, but Austria- 
Hungary, so it is charged, had brutally rejected 
the offer. If any one will carefully examine the text 
of the arbitration treaties which the United States 
and any other States have signed with one another, 
he will invariably find a clause therein that all ques- 
tions can be submitted to the International Arbitra- 
tion Court, except questions involving vital inter- 
ests, independence and national honor of a country. 
History has so far shown no exception to this. The 
Alabama question, which Great Britain likes to 
point out in this connection, has involved no ques- 
tion of national honor on her side. That was a clear 
case of breach of neutrality and the only question 
to be decided therewith was really a question of 
dollars and cents. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 75 

The case of the "Alabama" in 1862, which oper- 
ated so successfully against the commercial navy 
of the Northern States, is too well known and re- 
quires no amplification beyond the fact that the 
Arbitration Court of Geneva 14 September, 1872, 
sentenced Great Britain for her breach of neutrality 
to a payment of 15,000,000 dollars, to be paid to 
the United States. The same is true with reference 
to the "Florida" and "Shenandoah." These steam- 
ers chose for their field of action the stretch of sea 
between the Bahama Archipelago and Bermuda 
and Melbourne, respectively, for the purpose which 
was immediately carried out of going to the Arctic 
seas to attack American whaling vessels. The 
granting of coal supplies by Great Britain in quan- 
tities sufficient for such purposes constituted a 
flagrant breach of neutrality on the part of 
England. 

In the case of Austria-Hungary and Servia, the 
former country's national honor was involved. She 
could not barter her honor away for dollars and 
cents, nor could she submit her claims to the judg- 
ment of any International Arbitration Court. The 
futility of such a proposition will become instantly 
apparent to any open-minded American, if he will 
consider the following issues : 

Let us assume for a moment that in the immedi- 
ate neighborhood of the United States, for instance 
in Mexico, although I wish, of course, to cast no slur 
on Mexico, past experiences notwithstanding, the 
people had for many centuries in their history adopt- 



76 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

ed the habit of murdering all their presidents. Let 
us then assume — merely for an academic argument's 
sake — that the people of Mexico would for many 
years have adopted a policy of pronounced hostility 
to the people of the United States. They would for 
instance have organized open or secret revolution- 
ary committees in Mexico and in border States, in 
Texas, California. These committees would have 
carried on a general propaganda advocating the dis- 
ruption of the Government of the United States 
here and abroad! Would in fact tell the whole 
world in the foreign press that Americans were 
bullying the people of little Mexico into a state of 
abject slavery and submission! Let us suppose 
that their propaganda had lasted for a great many 
years, that the Government of the United States 
had complained to the other great powers and these 
had used diplomatic pressure on Mexico to stop 
her anti-American intrigues. Mexico would then 
have pledged herself to be good in future, but would 
have instantly resumed her activities with more 
vehemence than before. Let us assume, for argu- 
ment's sake, that as a sequel of these activities the 
Governors of Texas or California had been mur- 
dered by Mexicans with the support of their govern- 
ment. Let us suppose then that after some further 
pleasant neighborly acts of this kind, the revolu- 
tionary committee in Mexico, backed by the Mexi- 
can Government, had carried out a murderous plot 
against the President of the United States and had 
in fact assassinated him .... Let us assume all 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 77 

these things and let me then ask the questions: 
Is there any American who can honestly answer 
me that the United States Government would not 
have sent a note to Mexico — exactly as brutal, if 
our note was brutal — as we did to Servia? Is there 
any American who would not call Mexico's answer 
insufficient, if the latter in her answer had said that 
she had no knowledge of any outrages committed 
against the United States? And is there any Amer- 
ican who would say that this difference between the 
United States and Mexico should be arbitrated by 
the International Court of the Hague? 

This is in substance Austria-Hungary's case 
against Servia and this is why the author does not 
believe that the Austro-Hungarian note to Servia 
was brutal. 



III.— THE SARAJEVO TRIAL. 

When these lines are written the trial which de- 
serves to rank with the most famous trials of the 
world is over. In a certain sense it was the most 
famous, undoubtedly the most unique trial in 
world's history. The case which was decided here 
plunged the people of practically the whole civilized 
world into a terrible war. It caused the people 
of nearly all the large countries of Europe to meet 
each other as enemies on blood-stained battlefields. 

Who knows how large the number of victims will 
be? Who knows what changes this war will bring 
to the map of Europe? Who knows what the final 
price will be which the various countries will have 
to pay? 

The Court at Sarajevo had to hand down a ver- 
dict in the case of the murder of Archduke Francis 
Ferdinand d'Este, the presumptive heir to the 
throne of Austria-Hungary and his august consort, 
the Princess of Hohenberg. Little did the actual 
murderers and their immediate confederates realize 
that the bullets which struck down these two ex- 
alted victims would cast practically the whole civ- 
ilized world into the present deep gloom. This 
murder was, of course, merely the occasion which 
precipitated war, not the cause originating it. If, 
however, we view things with sufficient calmness, 

78 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 79 

we can say that possibly the real causes of the war 
could have remained in the background as they had 
been for many years in the past, had this unexpected 
event not brought them all to the surface. To ren- 
der full justice to the psychological aspects of this 
phase of the question one would have to know 
whether the actual murderers foresaw the terrible 
consequences of their deed when they committed it. 
At least one of the murderers, Nedjelko Cabrinovic, 
the bomb-thrower, who injured thirteen bystanders, 
but did not kill the Crown Prince, made an admis- 
sion to the contrary. He confessed that had he 
known that millions and millions would have to 
suffer and millions of mothers would have to cry, 
he would have blown up himself with all six bombs. 
But the evidence brought out at the trial clearly 
shows that Cabrinovic and Prinzip, his ally in 
crime, and the other immediate confederates had 
merely been the tools of higher-ups in Servia, and 
it is hard to believe that these "higher-ups" should 
not have foreseen the consequences. All would 
rather tend to indicate that they had not only fore- 
seen these consequences but, indeed, hoped to make 
them come true. 

When the first news was cabled over to us on the 
eventful day of the Crown Prince's murder, I was 
asked by the reporters to express an opinion as to 
who and what had caused the murder. I hesitated 
not a moment and branded the murder as the deed 
of an anarchist. I could not imagine any other pos- 
sibility. Later, when some papers came out with 



80 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

the statement that the murder must have been the 
outcome of a national Servian plot, I was not in- 
clined to share their opinion. It is hard to believe 
that the mind of a whole country should have run 
amuck, yet, the above statement pre-supposed that. 
Now, after having been home and seen and heard 
and read everything in conection with this murder, 
I know that I was wrong in the beginning and 
these papers right. Official Servia was behind the 
dastardly murder plot. Strange as it may seem, a 
majority of the papers now are rather inclined to 
accept my first version, absolving Servia. Yet, at 
the beginning there was no evidence available, now 
there is. The human nature of editors is very often 
inscrutable. 

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the 
proceedings of this trial which began on October 
12th and ended October 28th. In all 22 defend- 
ants were tried under a charge of high-treason, 
and three defendants under a charge of complicity 
and for concealing the weapons intended for the 
use of the plotters against the life of Archduke 
Francis Ferdinand and the Princess Hohenberg. 
In ordinary times a jury would sit in a trial of such 
character, that is for high-treason or for murder. 
Both crimes are comprised in the list of the 25 
crimes and misdemeanors of the introductory Arti- 
cle VI of the Austrian Law of Criminal procedure, 
for which jury trials are prescribed by law. In 
times of war, however, jury trials are naturally 
suspended. The general mobilization of the army 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 81 

calls for the service of jurymen and everybody 
alike. This of course provided a member serving 
on a jury would come under the provisions of the 
mobilization order at all. The provisions for the 
first line of the army, landwehr and landstrum, in- 
clude male persons up to their 42nd year of age 
only. The suspension of jury trials in times of 
war — as prescribed in our criminal law procedure, 
both in Austria and Hungary, is due to considera- 
tions of expediency rather than to any other reason. 
This does not, however, interfere with the publicity 
of the trials. I make specific mention of this, be- 
cause prominent American papers, as shown later, 
seem to be under the wrong impression that on ac- 
count of the war, administration of justice in Aus- 
tria-Hungary must be lagging behind and impaired. 
Our criminal law procedure in force in times of 
war explicitly provides that every grownup and 
unarmed person is admitted to the main hearing 
of a trial, the last restriction being not extended 
to persons who carry arms because of their office. 
Defendants are allowed fullest liberty at the hearing 
in bringing out every evidence to strengthen their 
case. If they have no attorneys of their own selec- 
tion, the court appoints attorneys for the defense 
ex-officio, as is done in this country under similar 
circumstances. Judgment of the Court must be 
based solely on evidence presented openly at the 
hearing of the trial. The preliminary examination 
of a criminal case is done by a special judge in 
conjunction with the prosecuting attorney. This 



82 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

special judge cannot be a member of the Court or 
Senate before which the case is heard at the main 
trial. The defendant has to be taken before this 
special judge within 24 hours after his arrest and 
has to be told why he is arrested. The Court or 
Senate before which a criminal case is tried has 
to consist of three judges (two judges and a pre- 
siding judge). In a trial against more defendants 
than one or two, there are in addition two assistant 
judges for substitution purposes. 

In the Sarajevo trial the Court consisted of Cir- 
cuit Court Judge Dr. Curinaldi as Presiding Judge 
and the Common Pleas Court Judges Dr. Naumo- 
vics and Dr. Hoffman as assessors. The two sup- 
plementary Judges were Common Pleas Court 
Judges Dr. Fialka and Dr. Pitha. The State was 
represented by Prosecuting Attorney Svara and 
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Dr. Stark. The 
following attorneys were acting for the defense: 
Dr. Premuzics, Dr. Zistler, Dr. Feldbauer, Dr. 
Perisics, Judge Strupl and Assistant Judge Malek. 

In addition to the 25 defendants there were 
about 50 or 75 witnesses heard after having been 
sworn in. 

PROSECUTING ATTORNEY'S OPENING ADDRESS. 

I will now first recount the main points of the 
prosecuting attorney's opening address, which con- 
tains the case of the state. The state commented 
extensively on the whole origin of the conspiracy. 
This is stated to have been hatched in Belgrade, 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 83 

capital of Servia, by the members of the "Narodna 
Odbrana." The two real purposes of this Servian 
society were to use every possible open and secret 
means to cause a disruption of the neighboring 
monarchy. It advocated the disintegration of cer- 
tain provinces from the main body, namely Bosnia, 
Herzegovina, Croatia and Slavonia, and some 
southern counties of Hungary. The society also 
entertained an active propaganda for war against 
Austria-Hungary. General Bozo Jankovic was the 
president of this society. The members of the 
Narodna Odbrana and other political circles in 
Belgrade and Servia were of opinion — so it was 
charged — that the late Archduke Francis Ferdi- 
nand would, because of his strong individuality, be 
a strong obstacle to the union of all these provinces 
and all the Southern Slavs under Servian sceptre. 
They decreed, therefore, that the Archduke must 
die. Gavrilo Princip, Nedjelko Cabrinovic and 
Trifco Grabez were selected by the Narodna 
Odbrana to carry out the death warrant against 
the Archduke during the latter's stay in Sarajevo. 
For this purpose they were put under the orders 
of Major Voislar Tankosic, Major Pribicevic and 
Mr. Ciganovic, an officer of the Servian State Kail- 
ways. All three were members of the Narodna 
Odbrana. They supplied bombs and Browning 
pistols, from the Royal Servian arsenal at Kraguje- 
vac. Moreover Ciganovic instructed the three 
named defendants in the use of Browning pistols, 
training them on an open ground near Topsider, 



84 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

Belgrade. Finally, they supplied the three de- 
fendants with a sufficient dose of cyanide potassium 
in order that they should commit suicide after 
the performance of their deed, whereby their 
relations with the Servian officials would never 
become known. With the aid of the Narodna Od- 
brana all weapons were smuggled from Belgrade 
across the Servian frontier and farther to Sarajevo. 
Thus the three defendants were first recommended 
to the good care of the Servian Major Popovic in 
Sabac, a member of the Narodna Odbrana, who 
gave them further recommendations to the Captain 
of the Royal Servian Border Police in Loznica, 
another member. He also obtained reduced fare 
for them on the Servian railways. From here they 
were recommended by the said captain to Mr. 
Grbic, an officer of the Royal Servian customs serv- 
ice. Thence they were guided to the island — Isako- 
vica Ada, on the river Drina, and from here to 
Trnvo, Bosnia. Two confidential agents of the Na- 
rodna Odbrana, by name of Mico Micic and Yakov 
Milovic acted as their guides. In Trnvo the local 
representative of the Narodna Odbrana, by name 
of Obren Milosevic, took charge of them and brought 
them in touch with Veljko Cubrilovic, teacher in 
Priboj, County of Zwornik. This latter brought 
them to Mitar Jovo, Blagoje, Nedjo Kerovic and 
Cvijan Zepanovic, all of whom were confidential 
agents of the oftnamed Narodna Odbrana. These 
men took them to Misko Jovanovic, a merchant in 
Tuzla, Bosnia, who was also an accredited agent 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 85 

of the same society. In his house they concealed 
all weapons, whence Misko Jovanovic and another 
member of the Narodna Odbrana, Hie Danilo, 
a newspaper man and former teacher, trans- 
ferred them to Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia. The 
latter subsequently engaged three confederates, by 
name of Vazo Cubrilovic, Svjetko Popovic, gradu- 
ates of a college in Sarajevo, and Mehmedbasic, 
resident of Stolac, to assist the three first named 
defendants in the carrying out of their deed. The 
last three named men were adepts of the Greater 
Servia propaganda. Hie Danilo also distributed 
the weapons among them on the day when the mur- 
der took place. He likewise showed them the places 
where they were to post themselves. A student by 
name of Lazar Dukic (Gyukic) assisted him in this 
work. Jovo Kranjcevic, another student of Sara- 
jevo, arranged with the above named Vazo Cub- 
rilovic that he would conceal all weapons after the 
murder had either been carried out successfully or 
failed. Finally it was claimed by the state that 
four other students, namely Branko Zagorac, Mar- 
ko Perin, Dragan Kalenber and Nicola Forkazic, 
had previous knowledge of the murder plot and did 
not inform the authorities as prescribed by law. Ned- 
jelko Cabrinovic, the first named defendant, threw 
a bomb on the automobile in which the late Arch- 
duke and Princess Hohenberg were driven. This 
bomb exploded but did not hurt the august couple. 
The explosion injured, however, thirteen by- 
standers, some of them seriously. Later on Gavrilo 



86 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

Prinzip fired two shots from his Browning pistol 
on the Crown Prince's automobile, when the latter 
drove back from the reception at the Mayor's office. 
After the murder Ivan Momcinevic, a shoemaker; 
Franjo Sadilo, another shoemaker, and the latter's 
wife, Andjela, took all the weapons from JovoKran- 
jcevic, mentioned heretofore, and concealed them. 
Nor did they surrender them, when the police came 
to make inquiries; in fact, they denied all knowl- 
edge about their whereabouts. 

The above specified acts constitute crimes of high 
treason under Paragraph I of Art. Ill of the Crimi- 
nal Law. All the forenamed defendants were ar- 
rested and have to stand trial, with the exception 
of Mehmedbasic, who fled to Montenegro. 

This is the gist of the state's case. It can be 
seen that the state has followed up the murder plot 
from the very beginnings. The charge of intellec- 
tual authorship and participation of the Narodna 
Odbrana is not made in a general, vague way, but 
the particular instances whereon this charge rests 
are specified. The hiring of the murderers, supply- 
ing them with the required weapons, smuggling 
both these latter and the hired murderers across the 
Servian frontier is minutely recounted. Every de- 
tail of the preparation of the murder seems to have 
had the careful planning and help of this powerful 
society, which had its ramifications all over Servia, 
Bosnia and many other parts of the Austro-Hun- 
garian Monarchy. If we accept Professor Pupin's 
admission, even here in the United States. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 87 

The hearing of the testimony took many days. 
It would be out of place to report the entire testi- 
mony within the limited space of this study. I 
will, however, endeavor to bring in all the main 
points which the more important defendants and 
witnesses admitted either in confirmation or supple- 
ment of the prosecuting attorney's charges or which 
they denied. 

On the whole it must be acknowledged by every 
impartial person who has followed the reports of 
the trial, that this latter was extremely fair and 
that the testimony has substantiated the State's 
contentions in practically every detail. It has also 
brought out many new, damaging facts. 

TESTIMONY OF DEFENDANTS. 

This is some of the more important testimony: 
1. Nedjelko Cabrinovic, the bomb-thrower, con- 
fessed that he had made the acquaintance of Milan 
Vasic, Eoyal Servian Major and Secretary of the 
Narodna Odbrana in Belgrade, some time before 
and had received money and instructions from him 
concerning the whole propaganda of the Narodna 
Odbrana. This was at the time of the Balkan war. 
He was at that time employed by Professor Zivojin 
Barcic, director of the State printing office in Bel- 
grade, and a member on the executive staff of the 
Narodna Odbrana. Cabrinovic confessed that 
through his constant affiliation with this society he 
became thoroughly imbued with the idea that it was 
the duty of every member to find means that all the 



88 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

Southern Slav districts of Austria-Hungary should 
be detached from the monarchy by force and should 
be united at least temporarily with Servia. His 
individual desire was then to organise a Southern 
Slav republic. 

Early in the spring of 1914, he was informed of 
the impending arrival of Archduke Francis Ferdi- 
nand in Sarajevo for the military manoeuvres. He 
discussed with Prinzip and one Joko Bajic what 
could be done. All three decided to inquire from 
members of the Narodna Odbrana. The last named 
was a member of the society and suggested to con- 
sult Major Milan Pribiecevic and Professor Zivojin 
Barcic, employer of Cabrinovic. However, these 
were just then absent from Belgrade, prinzip 
thereupon suggested to enter into communication 
with Milan Ciganovic, officer of the Servian State 
Railways. Ciganovic was closely connected with 
all the leaders of the Narodna Odbrana. He had 
formerly been a so-called "Komitadji," leader of a 
Servian franctireur-band. From the testimony of 
Cabrinovic it can be safely deduced, that before 
Prinzip had made his suggestion, he had already 
consulted Ciganovic. Ciganovic took them to Major 
Tankosic and through their joint aid — so Cabrino- 
vic admitted — they were supplied with four Brown- 
ing pistols and six bombs. He also admitted that 
they were supplied with a sufficient dose of cyanide 
potassium to enable them to commit suicide. They 
had been admonished not to give away either Major 
Tankosic, who teas a leading officer of the Servim 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 89 

General Staff, or anybody connected with the Nar- 
odna Odbrana. He then recounted their whole 
trip from Belgrade, substantiating in nearly every 
point the prosecuting attorney's charges. He 
brought out two additional facts, to wit : that Major 
Popovic in Sabac, to whom they had been directed 
by headquarters in Belgrade, supplied him and his 
confederates with false passports, a false description 
of their persons and letters to the Servian Captain, 
Joco Prvanovic, in Losnica. The other sensational 
admission was that Professor Zivojin Barcic, in- 
fluential member of the Narodna Odbrana, had in- 
troduced him to the Crown Prince Alexander of 
Servia. This meeting took place in April of this 
year at 9 o'clock in the evening. Cabrinovic had a 
long talk with the Crown Prince, but refused to 
disclose the nature of this conversation. This pre- 
sentation late in the evening, at a time when the 
Archduke's visit in Sarajevo was already known, 
must certainly be considered as significant. The 
Court did not press this point very strongly, how- 
ever, as it is a standing rule in our law procedure 
that the doings and statements of members of reign- 
ing families cannot be discussed at public hearings. 
This rule seems to have been observed to a con- 
siderable extent, although Austria-Hungary is in 
war with Servia, proving the tact and reserve of 
the Court. Such and similar questions were left 
for the diplomatic and political authorities to de- 
cide. 
Cabrinovic broke down repeatedly under the 



90 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

strain of his depositions. Some admissions con- 
cerning letters of recommendation he only made 
after the letters had been shown to him. One letter 
had been found by the Austro-Hungarian troops 
after their occupation of Loznica. Cabrinovic also 
admitted that he was afraid of Major Tankosic, 
assistant Chief of the Servian General Staff, and 
that was the reason he participated in the murder 
plot. 

2. The second defendant, Gavrilo Prinzip, acted 
very differently from the previous witness. He did 
not exhibit signs of regret or compunction over his 
murderous acts. Prinzip was for the last four 
years a student of a college in Belgrade. Formerly 
he had been at a school in Tuzla, Bosnia. During 
his residence in Belgrade he became convinced that 
all Southern Slav districts of Austria-Hungary, 
including Bosnia and Herzegovina, must be taken 
away from the monarchy by force, if necessary. 
That was the mission of Servia. Asked about the 
activities of the Narodna Odbrana, Prinzip replied 
that this society had the aim to raise the national 
conscience of Servia. He admitted knowing Major 
Tankosic, Ciganovic, admitted having received 150 
dinars from the latter and a dose of cyanide potas- 
sium to commit suicide after the murder. Prinzip 
confessed that he had taken this poison as advised, 
but vomited it out again and suffered no harm. He 
admitted having received the bombs and pistols 
from Ciganovic and Major Tankosic. Although very 
reluctantly he had to admit the receipt of letters 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 91 

to the various officers of the Narodna Odbrana en 
route from Belgrade to Sarajevo. Prinzip was also 
very reluctant about giving away any of his con- 
federates, but contradicted himself repeatedly. He 
admitted of course having shot both the Archduke 
and his consort. An important admission which he 
made was to the effect that he had written Danilo 
Ilic in the beginning of May of the current year 
from Belgrade that a murder plot was being hatched 
against Archduke Francis Ferdinand. He asked 
for his assistance. 

3. Trifko Grabez was the next defendant. He 
admitted almost everything that had been admitted 
by his two confederates about the receipt in Bel- 
grade of the bombs, pistols, money and letters to 
various members of the Narodna Odbrana. A new 
point in his testimony was the admission that when 
they met Veljko Cubrilovic, a member of the Nar- 
adna Odbrana, the latter instantly asked them 
whether the bombs and pistols were to be used in 
the plot against the life of Archduke Francis Fer- 
dinand. The prosecuting attorney singled out this 
admission as an instance that the Narodna Odbrana 
had evidently instructed all of its members who 
could be of assistance, to give help to the murderers. 
Grabez admitted that he was ready to kill the Arch- 
duke, had he had a chance. He was told by Danilo 
Ilic to post himself at the Carjeva Cuprija in Sara- 
jevo and fire at the Archduke's automobile when the 
latter left the Konak, the residence of the Governor. 
After the murder he tried to escape but was arrested 



92 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

on the way to the Servian town of Visehrad. Gra- 
bez admitted that the bombs which they received in 
Belgrade were entirely like tlwse which came from 
the Royal Servian arsenal at Kragujevac. f 

4. The next defendant was Danilo I lie, a bank; 
clerk, who went shortly before the murder from* 
Sarajevo to Belgrade. From there he returned to { 
Sarajevo and took positions with two Servian*' 
papers. Hie admitted having distributed the bombs, 
pistols and the cyanide potassium among the con-t 
spirators. He was a poor witness, contradicting) 
himself frequently. [ 

5. Vaso Cubrilovic, a student of a Sarajevo col-) 
lege, admitted his intention to kill the Crown y 
Prince. He testified that upon receipt of the newsr 
of the Crown Prince's arrival, he instantly con-> 
ceived the plan to kill him. He talked matters) 
over with a friend by name of Gyukic, who took) 
him to Danilo Hie. Here he was informed thaty 
everything had been arranged in Belgrade for thejt 
murder of the Crown Prince, whence weapons wouldf 
be supplied. He further admitted having received** 
instructions from Hie as to the use of throwing) 
bombs. 

6. Cvejtko Popovic was the next defendant. He 
had frequented a school in Sarajevo to prepare for 
school teaching. He had been reading pamphlets 
against Austria-Hungary and expressed himself in 
fullest sympathy with the Pan- Servian propaganda. 
Cubrilovic had asked him to join the conspiracy 
against the Crown Prince and he gladly heeded the 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 93 

call. He was posted on the corner of Cumuria 
Street, near the Appel Riverside Avenue, and was 
expected to throw bombs at the Crown Prince when 
the latter's automobile passed by. He confessed 
that he had also received a dose of cyanide potas- 
sium from Hie, but courage left him at the last 
minute to throw the bomb. He expressed regret 
for the deed. 

7. The next defendant, Veliko Cubrilovic, tes- 
tified that he had been twice in Belgrade, once at a 
congress of teachers and the second time to cele- 
brate the Servian Sokolday. He met Bozo Milan- 
jvic, the president of the Narodna Odbrana, at 
Sabac at one of his visits and was asked by this 
atter to make a secret propaganda for the society's 
lims in Bosnia. He admitted that the chairman of 
ill Servian societies in larger townships or villages 
of Bosnia were members of the executive staff of 
the Narodna Odbrana. He was himself president 
of the Servian Sokol in Priboj, and in this capacity 
belonged to the Narodna Odbrana. He made dam- 
aging admissions concerning the activities of many 
confederates. He confessed that he was sure about 
it, that a strong revolutionary committee stood be- 
hind Prinzip and his confederates, which had sup- 
plied them with the deadly weapons. He was, how- 
ever, not prepared to admit that the Narodna Od- 
brana was the revolutionary committee, although 
everything pointed to that assumption. When 
shown a letter of the Servian Army Inspector to the 
commander of the Drina Division of October 



94 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

5, 1911, wherein the latter was advised that the 
Sokol, Pobratimstwo and other Servian societies 
in Bosnia merely acted as "dummies" to cover up 
the revolutionary propaganda of the Narodna Od- 
brana, he tried to give an evasive answer. There- 
upon he was shown evidence to the effect that he 
had supplied the Servian Government with a minute 
description of all roads, rivers, brooks, wells and 
the whole topography of the Bosnian district of 
Zvornik, also a complete list of all Servian fam- 
ilies residing in this district. For this work he 
had received 50 dinars. Reluctantly he admitted 
this to be true, but tried to explain that this work 
served literary purposes only. Apparently by an 
oversight he gave away that Professor Dedijer had 
prepared a similar topographic description of Her- 
zegovina. He testified to the knowledge of the 
Servian origin of the bombs and said that he knew 
that he would have been killed by the Servian revo- 
lutionaries had he not aided the confederates as 
requested. 

His testimony was very important, as it supplied 
some missing links in the chain of evidence against 
the Narodna Odbrana. In connection with his 
testimony the State entered as evidence the official 
files of the recent trial against a Servian spy by 
name of Alewa Popovic, in Banjaluka, Bosnia, 
which clearly demonstrate that Bozo Milanovic, 
above named president of the Narodna Odbrana in 
Sabac, Servia, was also directing the Servian cen- 
tral spy office over the whole of Bosnia. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 95 

7a. Misko Jovanovic was the next defendant. He 
is the son of a wealthy merchant and owner of a 
moving picture show. He was a special agent of 
the Narodna Odbrana. He admitted having re- 
ceived about forty books concerning revolutionary 
literature sent to him by Bozo Milanovic, president 
of the N. O. in Sabac, which he distributed among 
Bosnian peasants. When shown a circular letter 
which he had addressed to the Sokol Society atTuzla, 
of which he was the superintendent, and asked to 
explain, he gave an evasive answer. This was one 
passage of the circular letter: "Beloved brethren: 
We have not been given the privilege of sacrificing 
our lives for the liberation of our country, for 
Servia. It is our sacred duty to help our (Servian) 
brethren with financial contributions." He ad- 
mitted having discussed the matter of the murder 
of the Crown Prince, but he said he thought that 
the murder would not come off. He admitted, more- 
over, having concealed the weapons in his house 
in Tuzla and transferred them later to Doboj. 
Nevertheless he had sent a telegram of regret to 
His Majesty the Emperor and King after the mur- 
der, signing this telegram as the superintendent of 
the Sokol Society at Tuzla. 

7b. Lazar Gjukic, student of a State normal 
school, and Branko Zagorac, student of a commer- 
cial school, admitted having had previous knowledge 
of the murder plot and various discussions with the 
chief conspirators. Milan Kranjcevic pleaded 
guilty to the charge that he had not denounced to 



96 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

the authorities that the Narodna Odbrana had sup- 
plied bombs for the murder of the Crown Prince, 
although having had previous knowledge of the 
whole plot. He admitted that it was a matter of 
common knowledge among all his friends that the 
Narodna Odbrana enlisted so-called komitadjis, 
that is bands distributing bombs among them, and 
that the scope of the whole propaganda of this 
society ivas to establish a great Southern Slav Em- 
pire under the leadership of the dynasty of Kara- 
gyorgyevic. He regretted the murder of the Crown 
Prince, but he avowed that it was necessary to kill 
a person of exalted rank as a sign of protest. 

8. Marko Perim, a student, Nicola Forkazic, a 
high school student, Drag an Kalember, another 
student, and Miko Micic, a baker, had all prelimi- 
nary knowledge of the murder plot, but did not re- 
port it to the authorities. Their depositions were 
not very important. 

The last named was shown various letters found 
in Loznica, Servia, after the occupation of this 
place by the Austro-Hungarian troops, which 
proved his complicity in the murder plot. He, 
however, denied his guilt. 

9. The next defendant, Jakov Milovic, was a 
peasant. He was charged with having aided the 
murderers on the Servian frontier and put them 
into touch with some of the individuals named in 
the charge of the prosecuting attorney. He was a 
very unwilling witness. The next defendant was 
also a peasant by name of Obren Milosevic. He 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 97 

admitted that the forenamed Milovic had brought 
the murderers to him. When he first refused to 
have anything to do with them, Milovic gave the 
secret sign. Thereupon he took charge of the bombs 
and Milovic carried the revolvers. 

10. The next three defendants were a father 
and his two sons, by name of Mitar Kerovic, a 
peasant, Nedo and Blagoja Kerovic. They had 
been asked by Cubrilovic to drive the murderers 
in a cart to Tuzla. They had seen the bombs and 
pistols and were told for what purpose they would 
be used. They were afraid to report this to the au* 
thorities. Cubrilovic had warned them to be silent. 
u The boys came from Servia and will risk their* 
lives, therefore it is necessary to keep mum" so he 
had told them. 

Blagoja Kerovic testified that he had been told 
that Bosnia was a tear in the eye of Servia, and that 
Trifko Grabez, one of the three chief defendants, 
had confided to him that if they were betrayed, there 
would be people in Servia who would revenge them. 
Cvijan Stjepanovic substantiated the latter's testi- 
mony. 

11. Ivan Momcinevic, shoemaker, Frank Sadilo, 
carpenter, and his wife, Angela Sadilo, weve charged 
with having received some of the weapons from the 
defendant Kranjcevic in Sarajevo. They admitted 
this, but excused themselves that they did not think 
that there was anything important connected with 
the safekeeping of these arms. Sadilo injected 
humor into his testimony. He said that he liked 



98 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

the Serbs, when he did not see them. He admitted 
being a Croatian and a Catholic. 

12. Next to the hearing of the testimony of the 
defendants the exact age of Gavrilo Prinzip, the 
chief plotter and murderer, was ascertained. Ac- 
cording to the church record he was born on July 
13th, 1894. In another record of the same church, 
however, the birthdate was given as June 13th, 
1894. 

TESTIMONY OF WITNESSES AND OTHER EVIDENCE. 

Then followed the testimony of witnesses: 

13. The first witness, Trifko Krstanovic, was 
one of the most important witnesses of the State 
to demonstrate the sinister activities of the Narodna 
Odbrana against Austria-Hungary. 

Witness is an orthodox Servian. He came to 
Servia before the annexation of Bosnia and Her- 
czegovina, viz., before 1908. He came to Belgrade 
after unsuccessful efforts to find a position; he 
was on the point of returning to Bosnia when he 
met a police officer who took a fancy to him. The 
officer sent him to Major, then Captain, Tarikosic, 
member of the Narodna Odbrana. This latter em- 
ployed him as a "komitadji." Later on he was 
transferred to the staff of Major Pribicevic. There 
were twenty others with him; the number, how- 
ever, gradually increased to 140. They were taught 
how to lay mines, blow up tunnels and destroy 
railway tracks. General Bozo Jankovic, president 
of the Narodna Odbrana in Belgrade and the whole 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 99 

of Servia, often inspected them and paid for their 
board. In addition they were paid 25 paras a day 
for tobacco. Major Pribicevic, another member of 
the Narodna Odbrana, inspected them twice a week. 
After the annexation of Bosnia they were dis- 
charged. Through the good offices of General Jan- 
kovic he came in the employ of the Narodna Od- 
brana direct. Jankovic sent him repeatedly on 
secret missions to Sabac and to the frontiers. Gen- 
eral Jankovic had told him that the powers in be- 
ing (viz. Russia) had wanted Servia to formally 
acknowledge the annexation of Bosnia, but also to 
be in readiness for the first emergency. At that 
time the Narodna Odbrana was engaged in spy- 
work. It entertained a little depot of arms in the 
War Office. Witness also met the Servian officers 
Optrkic and Bralovic, in addition to the first named 
two majors, Tankosic and Pribicevic, who were to 
play such an important part in the murder plot 
against the Crown Prince. Witness testified that 
from personal knowledge he knew that only well- 
to-do and such persons could be members of the 
Narodna Odbrana in Bosnia, who could keep their 
mouths shut. Witness was 17 months in this em- 
ploy as the special orderly of General Jankovic. 
After that he entered the services of BozoMilanovic, 
the president of the Narodna Odbrana in Sabac, 
whose name was repeatedly mentioned above. After 
seven months of service he (Milanovic) gave him a 
membership ticket of the Narodna Odbrana. This 
ticket consisted of a card of Milanovic, over whose 



100 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

name "Narodna Odbrana" was inscribed with a 
seal and a deathhead between two hands. 

From Sabac witness was sent to the War Office 
for revolvers. There was continuous intercourse 
betwen the Narodna Odbrana and the War Office. 
In the War Office he saw the exact topographic map 
of Bosnia. At one occasion he received orders from 
the Narodna Odbrana to go to Bosnia and murder 
one Ljubo Stanojevic. This order was later with- 
drawn. Witness had a pay of 60 dinars, but found 
that this was not enough and so he left the employ 
of the Narodna Odbrana after four years' service. 
General Jankovic questioned him why he wanted 
to leave. When he answered that he did not receive 
enough pay, he was arrested. Later on he was 
released upon the intervention of a Servian mem- 
ber of the Bosnian Diet and was allowed to open a 
bakery in Bosnia. Witness declared that in Servia 
the feeling of hatred for Austria-Hungary ran very 
high and everything had been done for years to pre- 
pare the war against Austria-Hungary. According 
to witness, Major Pribicevic had probably not par- 
ticipated in the plot, because he would have been 
more clever in suppressing all evidence of com- 
plicity than Major Tankosic was. 

14. Letters were next read of the witnesses: 
Mr. Arthur Job and Mr. Ibrahim Gjuzilberg, who 
had both been injured by the bomb explosion. 

15. After the testimony of a few eye witnesses 
who had seen the throwing of the bomb by Cabrino- 
vic the testimony of Ljubo Stanarincic was heard. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 101 

This man had been in Servia for some time and was 
arrested there as a spy, but escaped and came to 
Bosnia. He testified that he knew from personal 
knowledge that officers in the active service of the 
Servian army commanded the "Komitadji's." At 
the time of the annexation of Bosnia and later on, 
the Narodna Odbrana employed these Komitadjis 
against Austria-Hungary, declaring a war of life 
and death against the monarchy. The Narodna 
Odbrana received subsidies from the Servian Gov- 
ernment and was allowed the privilege of using 
arms of the state arsenals. The so-called black 
legion was a subdepartment of the Narodna Od- 
brana which had the task to assassinate everybody 
who would do anything against the Narodna 
Odbrana. 

16. Defendant Gabrinovic, who had listened to 
this testimony, stated on rebuttal that it was true 
in substance and all particulars except that there 
was no inscription on the arms showing that they 
actually were Servian state arms. 

17. Vlado Kujundcic was the next witness. He 
had been a Servian Komitadji. He confirmed the 
last witness' testimony. He also deposed that at 
the time of the occupation of Loznica and Little 
Zvornik by the Austro-Hungarian troops, at which 
he was present, it was found in the files of Servian 
Government in these places that in that district 
alone Servia maintained an organization of 100 
spies. Micic, one of the defendants, was also named 
as one of the highly qualified secret agents. The 



102 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

files also demonstrated plainly that the Servian 
Sokol and Pobratimstvo societies in Bosnia were 
merely acting as "dummies" for the revolutionary 
propaganda of the Narodna Odbrana. 

18. Next came the testimony of eight witnesses 
who had been injured by the explosion of the bomb 
which Gabrinovic had thrown on the automobile 
of the Crown Prince. Their testimony is irrelevant. 

19. The next witness was General Potiorek, 
military governor of Bosnia. He gave a graphic 
description of how the bomb was thrown which in- 
jured several persons, also Lieutenant-Colonel 
Merici. The Crown Prince, so witness deposed, in- 
sisted on visiting the wounded officer in the hospital 
after the reception was over, although he (the wit- 
ness) had warned him to drive to Ilidze on a differ- 
ent road than the one marked out in the program. 
When the automobile of the Crown Prince turned 
into Francis Joseph Road he suddenly heard two 
detonations and saw both the Crown Prince and 
Princess Hohenberg fall down from their seats. He 
recounted other particulars of the murder which 
are sufficiently known, through cable and press 
reports. 

20. Next came the testimony of physicians who 
had conducted the post mortem and of a number 
of eye-witnesses who had seen the murderers in the 
act. Their testimony is of no particular interest. 
One witness, Dobroslav Jevdevic, testified that to 
his personal knowledge Prinzip, the murderer of the 
Crown Prince, had had an entry to the highest 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 103 

circles in Belgrade. He did not specify what these 
highest circles were. 

21. Dragutin Stojanovic, officer of the Servian 
State Railways, testified that he heard in Belgrade 
that a murder plot had been hatched there. His 
intention was to go to Sophia, capital of Bulgaria, 
and report what he knew. He went there, but for 
some reason could not carry out his intention. 
Later on he returned to Belgrade to gather further 
evidence, and finally went to Temesvar, Southern 
Hungary, where he was arrested as a Servian spy. 
He was a member of a "Komitatdi band" under 
command of Major Tankosic. A month before the 
murder of the Crown Prince Major Pribicevic, of 
the Narodna Odorana, asked him whether he would 
go to Bosnia on a special mission. Stojanovic de- 
clined to go. He further testified that it was com- 
mon knowledge in Belgrade that Major Pribicevic 
had gone to Bosnia to prepare everything for the 
war against Austria-Hungary. Countless arms 
were smuggled into Bosnia through Major Pribice- 
vic and the Narodna Obrana's agency. After the 
murder of the Crown Prince Milan Ciganovic fled 
from Belgrade. Witness testified also that after 
the Balkan war the "Koinitadjis" had to return all 
arms, bombs, etc., to the government. For this 
reason, only Servian Government or its members 
viz., the Narodna Odbrana, could have supplied 
bombs to the murderers. 

22. The two main defendants Grabez, Cabrino- 
vic, who had listened to this witness' testimony, 



104 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

declared on rebuttal that witness was in the pay of 
the Austro-Hungarian secret service. A discussion 
ensued between the forenamed defendants and 
Prinzip in the course of which they admitted jointly 
that Gjuro Sarac, a man by name of Bukorac and 
a mysterious thin person by the name of Dr. Kasimi- 
rovic, all three in Belgrade, had also known about 
the plot. The latter is stated to have studied in 
Kiew, Russia, and have been a close friend of Major 
Tankosic. 

The presiding judge thereupon remarked that one 
Dr. Radovan Kasimirovic was one of the editors of 
the "Hriscanski Vjesnik," the Christian Messenger, 
in Belgrade. The defendants were not able to give 
any more definite news about the identity of this 
man. 

23. The State then produced the annual report 
(1912-13) of the Sokol Society "Dusan Silni" in 
Kragujevac, Servia. Copy of this report had been 
found in the offices of numerous Servian Sokol so- 
cieties in Bosnia, including the one in Tuzla. This 
report was submitted to show the close connection 
of the Narodna Odbrana and these Sokol societies. 
The Narodna Odbrana was named in the report as 
the largest patron. The districts of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina with 40 societies and 3,000 members 
were named as contributing members. The report, 
which was read at the general meeting of the above- 
named society in Kragujevac, contains the following 
important passages : "The aim of the Sokol societies 
is to unite all Slavic brethren. Part of these had 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 105 

been already liberated, but the enemy in the North, 
meaning Austria-Hungary, is more dangerous and 
heartless because he is, in both culture and finances, 
stronger than we are. This enemy keeps millions 
of our brethren in chains and slavery. We cannot 
leave them to the mercy of this terrible, insatiable 
enemy. We must hurry to their aid. Our souls 
yearn for the lost Servian Empire. We must visit 
our brethren across the Drina and the city of Sara- 
jevo, in order to find the legacy of Saint Sava, 
etc. . . ." The report goes on in this bombastic 
language. At the end thanks are voted to the 
Narodna Odbrana and the Servian Sumadia divi- 
sion for their powerful assistance. The president 
of this Sokol Society is the Servian major of in- 
fantry, Milhajlo Kovasevic ; president of the execu- 
tive committee, a Servian major of artillery, 
Tasovac. 

The State in presenting this evidence also em- 
phasized the close relations between the Servian 
army and the Narodna Odbrana as well as the Sokol 
societies. The army and these societies were prac- 
tically one great body plotting hand in hand against 
the stability and existence of the Austro-Hungarian 
monarchy, the army by supplying regular and ir- 
regular soldiers and arms, the Sokol societies by 
fomenting dissent in the ranks of the population 
of Bosnia, the Narodna Odbrana by helping to do 
both. 

24. Defendants Veljko Cubrilovic and Misko 
Jovanovic on rebuttal declared that they were not 



106 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

cognizant of the activities of the Sokol Society in 
Kragujevac. Defendant Cabrinovic, however, ad- 
mitted that this latter society had sent circulars 
and lists to all Sokol societies in Bosnia. He also 
admitted knowledge that the Narodna Odbrana had 
helped to bring about the present war. 

25. A number of witnesses were then heard on 
minor details of the murder plot. A witness by 
name of Ivan Grcar confirmed the depositions of 
former witnesses concerning the revolutionary 
propaganda of the Narodna Odbrana with reference 
to the disruption of the Austro-Hungarian mon- 
archy. Some of the defendants on rebuttal declared 
him to be a spy. At this point the hearing and dis- 
cussions were very heated and the Court had to fre- 
quently admonish and calm the wrangling parties. 

26. One of the next witnesses by name of Luka 
Alinovic testified that to his personal knowledge 
there existed many societies in Belgrade whose aim 
was to have all generals in the Austro-Hungarian 
army assassinated. These societies entertained 
close intercourse with similar societies in Bosnia, 
Dalmatia and Croatia. Questioned to specify these 
Servian societies he gave evasive answers, but later 
on mentioned the Sokol societies and the Narodna 
Odbrana as being the primary movers of the whole 
propaganda. It is fair to add that he made this 
statement as a matter of a common knowledge 
among all his friends and not as a matter of direct 
first-hand knowledge. 

27. Another witness by name of Jove Jaglicic 



AUSTRIA HUNGARY AND THE WAR 107 

testified that one Petar Klaric, of the township of 
Foca and member of the Narodna Odbrana, had ap- 
proached him to become a Servian spy and to enter 
the Narodna Odbrana as a member or worker. Ac- 
cording to Petar Klaric's statement, who also had 
accepted a similar position with the Narodna Od- 
brana,he had to collect data concerning the military 
forces in Kalinovik, Bosnia. The Servian Major 
Todorovic in Banja Koviljaca, near Loznica, had 
taught him to instruct new members of the Narodna 
Odbrana in the use of bombs and other weapons. 
A special duty of all members of this society con- 
sisted in using all possible efforts to cause whole- 
sale desertions of Austro-Hungarian soldiers and 
in blowing up railway tracks and gunpotvder 
magazines. 

28. The next testimony was read from the state- 
ment made by Svetozar Milanic under oath some 
time before his death. This man had gone to Bel- 
grade early in 1914 to earn his living there as a 
teacher of German and French. He had 1,600 
crowns on his person and his immediate future 
seemed to be assured. He applied for a position as 
assistant teacher in a Belgrade high school, but was 
unsuccessful in his application. Thereupon he ap- 
plied for a position as clerk and sales agent of a few 
Servian trading firms. At the time when the visit 
of the Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince in Sarajevo 
had already become known in Belgrade he had in 
the caf6 of the Hotel Eichskranz in Belgrade re- 
peatedly witnessed a gang of young men with a 



108 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

photo of the Crown Prince which was passed from 
hand to hand. He could not overhear their conver- 
sation, however. Later on he moved to an appart- 
ment which he shared with another man. In the 
same house a number of young men lived in whose 
quarters daily meetings took place. From his 
roommate, who knew these people, he heard that 
the chief of the Servian detective department came 
there daily to instruct these young men in various 
languages which they would need soon. From 
various indications and conversations with his 
roommate, Milanic suspected that some plot was 
prepared against the Austro-Hungarian .Crown 
Prince, as this latter's name and impending visit 
was on everybody's lips in those days. He tried to 
investigate, but all of a sudden the whole gang of 
young men cleared their quarters. Thereupon he 
decided to call at the Austro-Hungarian Consulate 
General, but was arrested on his way to the consular 
office by a Servian gendarme who escorted him to 
the police. Here he was questioned about the pur- 
pose of his visit to the consulate. Then he was put 
into various jails on a trumped up charge that he 
was a spy. In the jail he was beaten repeatedly 
with sandbags, and once he nearly fell victim to an 
assault of another inmate of the jail. According 
to the witnesses' statement this murderous assault 
must have been arranged by the police, as a police 
officer iaas quietly standing by when the assault 
took place. Eventually one day he was taken out of 
jail and brought before the chief of police. Both 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 109 

this latter and the assistant chief were present. 
They handed him triumphantly a clipping from a 
paper referring to the murder of the Crown Prince. 
"You tried to prevent this" so he testified they said 
to him, "but we are cleverer than you are. Now 
Austria-Hungary's turn comes next. We will 
destroy it." Witness was told that he would have 
to leave Belgrade at once. Before leaving, however, 
he tvas asked to sign a paper that all his effects had 
been handed over to him in best order. Milanic re- 
fused to sign because both his money and sundry 
valuables had been taken from him during his con- 
finement. In spite of his protestations he was 
escorted over the frontier to Belgrade, and was told 
by the police that Count Berchtold would un- 
doubtedly come and call for his lost effects. Wit- 
ness was shown the photos of the murderers, and he 
was asked whether he could identify them as some 
of the young men whom he had seen in the house 
where he lived. He identified Trifko Grabez, one 
of the three chief defendants, but was uncertain 
about the remainder. Defendant Prinzip on re- 
buttal branded Milanic as a spy. 

29. A number of other depositions were read 
then containing minor evidence. The State then 
submitted a book entitled "Narodna Odbrana" as 
court evidence, which was accepted. According to 
the book, published in Servia, this society had. been 
organized around or some short time before the an- 
nexation of Bosnia. The enrolling and training of 
voluntary corps so-called "Komitadjis" is declared 



110 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

to be one of the principal aims of the Narodna 
Odbrana. The latter has agencies in Servia and 
abroad which are called upon to circulate every- 
where reports of the enmity of Austria-Hungary 
against Servia. It is asked that the foreign press 
should be interested in this vilification campaign 
of Austria-Hungary abroad. Austro-Hungarian, 
Italian, French and Russian papers were thus won 
for the cause of Servia, but among others there also 
figured the Balkan, published in Chicago, U. S., 
and the Borba Balkana, published in St. Louis, 
Mo. According td Article 23 of its rules and by- 
laws the Narodna Odbrana' 's official seal contains a 
deathhead between two hands. An annex of this 
book called the "Black List" was thereupon read, 
referring to the Austro-Hungarian army. These 
were some of its contents: "Bosnia and Herzego- 
vina have always been Servian countries. After the 
Congress of Berlin Austria-Hungary occupied these 
countries and has since tortured the Servian nation 
in every possible way. Since Europe was not will- 
ing to help Servia, the latter decided to free herself 
from the Austrian yoke. All Servians must get 
thoroughly familiar with the conditions in the 
Austro-Hungarian army, because that will help Ser- 
via in her future war. Austria-Hungary has ten 
other nations and this is her weakness, because the 
soldiers would not want to fight. The Austro-Hun- 
garian artillery was weak. Servians and Croatians 
constitute seven of the contingent of the Austro- 
Hungarian army. All Slavs are dissatisfied and 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 111 

could be easily induced to betray their country* 
The Austro-Hungarian army is afraid of guerilla 
wars in the mountains. The Servians need not be 
afraid, because the Austro-Hungarian army would 
have other enemies." In other pamphlets published 
in Belgrade in 1912, which the prosecuting attorney 
also submitted as court evidence, the Servian popu- 
lation is asked to incite revolutions in Austria-Hun- 
gary, that being the only way to destroy the mon- 
archy. In two pamphlets of the same year, entitled 
"Ratne Pjesme" and "Smrt Jednog Heroja," the 
union of Servia with Bosnia and Herzegovina is 
asked, and the murderous attempt of Bogdan 
Zerajic on the life of the former military governor 
of Bosnia, General Baron Varesanin, is glorified. 
Servians youth is asked to follow this example." 

Defendant Prinzip, at the reading of this passage, 
interrupted the prosecuting attorney with a "Hoch 
Zerajic." Whereupon he was admonished by the 
court to abstain from improper remarks. Defen- 
dants Cabrinovic, Prinzip and Grabez, on' rebuttal, 
demanded the subpoena of various witnesses. Upon 
their request being granted by the court, Grabez de- 
clared that this was a mistake ; they wanted to mis- 
lead the court. He knew that nothing could happen 
to him beyond the twenty years' jail. 

After this interruption, the prosecuting attorney 
resumed the reading from the pamphlets. The in- 
formation contained in these latter tends to show 
that the following societies represent the Narodna 
Odbrana propaganda in Austria-Hungary : the Ser- 



112 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

vian society "Prozvieta" in Sarajevo, all the Ser- 
vian Sokol societies in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croa- 
tia, Dalmatia and the Bacska, Southern Hungary, 
numerous lecture clubs, singing societies, agricul- 
tural societies, etc. 

30. Next came the depositions of the medical 
experts concerning the wounds inflicted by the bul- 
let shots on the Crown Prince and his consort, and 
the testimony of the gun experts. Various gun ex- 
perts made depositions. All agreed that the bombs 
used in connection with the murder plot by the 
murderers were identical with the hand grenades 
used in the Servian army. The construction of 
these hand grenades was declared to be absolutely 
identical with those found at another expert ex- 
amination in Brcko, which were wrapped up in the 
original form of packing as issued by the Servian 
state arsenal in Kragujevac. On these wrapping 
papers the original signatures of the Servian depot 
officers in Kragujevac wtere plainly legible. Hand 
grenades of this construction are not manufactured 
outside of Service anywhere. The gun experts were 
entirely in accord about this. The revolvers were 
declared to be modern type revolvers made in 
Belgium-. 

31. After a few testimonies of minor importance 
and some general statements made by defendants 
Vazo Cubrilovic and Lazar Gjukic parts of the 
calendars of the Servian "Prozvieta" society in 
Sarajevo (named above) were offered in evidence 
and read in court. The "Prozvieta" society, as 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 113 

stated in her by-laws, was engaged in cultural pur- 
suits only. In this calendar issued for the year 
1914, however, items such as the following were 
contained : that the victory of the Servian army over 
the Bulgarian and Turkish troops was all the more 
welcome as this victory was really a victory over 
Austria-Hungary. By raising the national con- 
science of Servia the national foundations of Aus- 
tria-Hungary were undermined. Therefore, every 
strife among Servians must cease in order to achieve 
the great aim : Austria-Hungary's downfall. It was 
immaterial what means were used to obtain this 
end, provided they were adequate, etc. 

32. The next witness was Henry Scliulz, a tailor 
apprentice, whom the Servians had used as a spy 
against Austria-Hungary. His testimony was 
damaging both to Bozo Milanovic, the oftnamed 
president of the Narodna Odbrana in Sabac, Servia, 
and to one defendant, viz., Misko Jovanovic. Wit- 
ness admitted having been a Servian spy in 1913, 
and having surrendered valuable strategic informa- 
tion concerning the district of Tuzla. He also ad- 
mitted having received various amounts from 
various Servian officers. One Kosta Todorovic, a 
member of the Narodna Odbrana, had told him that 
they, the Servians, had plenty of confidential men 
in Bosnia, on whom they could rely in time of ivar. 

Another witness testified that from his personal 
knowledge many movements of younger people, 
chiefly students, in Croatia, Bosnia, of which he 
had personal knowledge had been invariably in- 



114 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

spired by the Narodna Odbrana. Witness deposed 
that from the time that the delegates of Austrian 
Southern Slav universities visited Belgrade in 
1912 the Pan-Servian propaganda had gained a 
tremendous impetus. At that time Crown Prince 
Alexander of Servia received two of the students 
by name of Vladimir Bazilic and Luca Jukic in 
audience. The government in Belgrade supplied the 
students with money, and soon thereafter Luka 
Jukic committed his sensational murderous attempt 
on the life of Baron Skerlecz, Banus (governor) of 
Croatia. 

The plan was to cause war between Servia and 
Austria-Hungary should the revolutionary plot of 
the students prove entirely successful. At the time 
of the trial against Luka Jukic and his confederates, 
a Servian professor from the University in Belgrade 
brought the greetings of Crotcn Prince Alexander 
to Zagreb to all the defendants. Witness having 
been a defendant in that trial, also was the recipient 
of this royal favor. 

Theodore Popovic and Trezimir Kovadc, the next 
two witnesses, testified that from second hand they 
knew that the Narodna Odbrana had supplied some 
68,000 crowns to defray the expenses of the Luka 
Jukic trial in Zagreb. Their testimony also brought 
out some further interesting evidence, which I, how- 
ever, deem out of place to record here, as it is based 
on second hand knowledge and more or less hear- 
say. As circumstantial evidence these statements 
may have had considerable value. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 115 

33. The state then offered various reports from 
various courts concerning personal data of some of 
the defendants and these latter were given full 
privilege to deny or confirm same. 

From a protocol drawn up in the Austro-Hun- 
garian Legation in Belgrade, which was read in 
court, it appeared that Milan Ciganovic, officer of 
the Servian State Railways, member of the Narodna 
Odbrana and confidential agent of General Bozo 
Jankovic, had left Belgrade recently, and was sup- 
posed to have gone to Ribari. Gavrilo Prinzip had 
been in constant communication with him while he 
was in Belgrade. Ciganovic had written his mother 
from Belgrade in May that he would go to Saloniki. 
The Servian State Railways informed her that he 
was alive, but would not give any further clue as 
to his whereabouts. These data were brought out 
in the trial and are important also because, in her 
answer to the Austro-Hungarian note, Servia had 
stated that Ciganovic had been "employed until 
June 15 in the Department of Railroads, and it has 
not been possible to arrest this man up to now." 
The prefect of police of Belgrade, however, is cited 
by the Austro-Hungarian Government in its com- 
ment on the Servian reply having brought about 
the departure of Ciganovic, and having known 
where the latter was. The same prefect had also 
declared in an interview that there was no man of 
the name of Milan Ciganovic in Belgrade. From 
the letter of the Department of Railroads to the 
mother of Ciganovic, which was submitted in court, 



116 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

it would seem clearly that this department knew 
where Ciganovic was, consequently the prefect of 
police and Servian Government must necessarily 
also have known it. 

34. After various other testimonies concerning 
defendants of minor importance, a report of the 
police department in Zimony was submitted as 
court evidence. Zimony is in Hungary right across 
from the city of Belgrade. From this report it ap- 
peared that the Narodna Odbrana had been founded 
in 1908 in Belgrade. The following were the found- 
ers: General Bozo Jankovic, president; Ljuba Jo- 
vanovic, Ljuba Davidovic, Vojislav Bujovic, Pro- 
fessor Zivojin Barcic, Svetozar Tomic, Major Voja 
Tankosic and Major Milan Pribicevic. All of the 
named persons have played a very prominent part 
in Servian public life. Some of them, in fact, were 
practically the leaders of modern Servia. Major 
Pribicevic had drawn up the revolutionary by-laws, 
directed against Austria-Hungary. 

35. This was followed by the lecture of the by- 
laws of various societies which were involved in the 
trial. On rebuttal, three defendants, Gjukic, 
Kranjcevic and Yazo Cubrilovic, denied that the by- 
laws of their secret student societies were like those 
which had been read, declaring that their laws had 
been made later. 

When the files of the Schafer and Hercigonja 
trial for high treason were offered in court as evi- 
dence, and parts of them having reference to the 
present trial read, defendant Prinzip all of a sud- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 117 

den stood up and declared that he was an enemy of 
the reigning dynasty. With these files the state 
tried to demonstrate that the complicity of Servian 
Government in the revolutionary propaganda 
against Austria-Hungary was already apparent in 
the Hercigonja case, which, however, was an unsuc- 
cessful case from the Servian point of view, as 
Servia did not obtain what she wanted. Having 
failed in that instance, every effort was strained 
to bring the murder plot against the Crown Prince 
of Austria-Hungary to a successful issue. 

After some further papers and testimony of minor 
importance had been offered, the submission of 
evidence was closed. 

CLOSING ARGUMENTS OF PROSECUTION AND DEFENSE. 

To American readers it may perhaps occur why 
the defense did not submit special evidence after 
the state had rested its case. Criminal law pro- 
cedure in our country is somewhat different from 
the procedure in this country. First of all, as a 
rule, the prosecuting attorney does not make a dark 
secret of his evidence prior to the trial. Counsel 
for defense can consult with the special judge who 
attends to the preliminary examination, and also 
with the prosecuting attorney about the case's evi- 
dence. Both sides are pretty well aware of the 
extent and nature of the mutual evidence before- 
hand. In a case such as this the defendant's own 
testimony was really evidence for the defense, al- 
though formally the state presented it. On the 



118 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

other hand defendants testified on rebuttal when- 
ever they desired to do so. They could have done so 
after each new witness' testimony. All testimony 
introduced by them was admitted. Altogether, 
about one hundred persons testified, and a great 
deal of written or printed evidence was submitted. 
If the whole evidence was not recounted here, this 
is merely due to the limited space of this study, and 
because a great deal of it I found unimportant from 
the American reader's point of view. 

The prosecuting attorney's argument to the court 
lasted nearly a whole day and covered the whole 
ground. He first drew attention to the enthusiasm 
of the population of Sarajevo which greeted the 
arrival of the Crown Prince. In contrast thereto, 
he emphasized the poignant grief into which the 
population of the whole country had been cast by 
the dastardly murder. The actual murderers, so 
he said, were a few immature young men, who had 
been instigated to commit the murder. The real 
instigators were not in court, he was sorry to state. 
Servia was the instigator of the murder. Servia, 
which owed her independent existence and the in- 
crease of her territory primarily to the Austro-Hun- 
garian monarchy. The latter had saved her from 
utter destruction after the defeat of Slivnitza, which 
Prince Alexander of Battenberg inflicted on Servia. 
Yet Servia had repaid Austria-Hungary with dark 
ingratitude. Servia, in her place, had been insti- 
gated by another higher up, by the despotic Empire 
of the Czar, which used Servia as its plaything and 



AUSTRIA -HUNGARY AND THE WAR 119 

tool. No wonder that Servia, under the pernicious 
influence of Russian flattery or bullying, had grad- 
ually lost all sense of proportion. She wanted to 
play the same part in the ranks of the Southern 
Slav nations as Russia is playing among the North- 
ern Slavs. Under this sinister influence, Servia 
stopped at nothing. Using the slogan of the union 
of all Southern Slav nations as her battle cry, she 
bent all her efforts to disrupt the existence of the 
monarchy. Particularly did she exhibit a keen de- 
sire to wrest Bosnia and Herzegovina from Aus- 
tria-Hungary's rule. Servia's ambition was the 
cause of many a crisis in Europe. When the 
monarchy annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 
1908 she began to organize revolutionary move- 
ments to undermine the stability of the monarchy 
from within. The great powers of Europe had 
failed to support her ambition, so she took recur- 
rence to her own methods. Evidence of this case 
had shown, so the prosecuting attorney said, that 
Servian state ministers, high officers of the army 
and the Servian Crown Prince himself had had per- 
sonal and frequent intercourse with the hired mur- 
derers of the Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince. This 
charge could be fairly made. The Narodna Odbrana 
had been the tool in the hands of the Servian Gov- 
ernment. This society had infected the entire social 
life of the Southern Slavs in the monarchy. It 
preached hatred of the monarchy. It advocated 
Bosnia's and Herzegovina's forcible separation from 
the monarchy. It had taken possession of the Serb 



120 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

Autonomous Church and School Systems in Bosnia. 
It had entrapped all social, cultural, agricultural 
and even financial organizations into its meshes. 
These organizations had gradually become auxil- 
iaries of the baneful Pan- Servian activities. Their 
members did not hesitate to commit high treason 
against Austria-Hungary for the benefit of Servia. 
Defendants had practically all admitted that the 
Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince was an obstalce in 
the way of the Pan-Servian dreams coming true. 
Servian headquarters in Belgrade recognized in 
Arch Duke Francis Ferdinand a strong, leading in- 
dividual who would frustrate their ambitious plans. 
This is why these headquarters decided that he 
must be eliminated at any cost. Hereigonja, wiiom 
they had hired as a murderer, failed in his effort. 
Thereupon they discovered a few impecunious 
youngsters in Belgrade, whom they thoroughly pre- 
pared, playing on their flexible enthusiastic nature. 
Servian Government supplied the hired murderers 
with arms and money. Its officers taught them how 
to use the deadly weapons, which they then caused 
to be smuggled across the Servian frontier. In 
Bosnia its confidential organs helped to transport 
these weapons and the murderers to Sarajevo. All 
these acts constituted, from the point of view of 
Austria-Hungary, crimes of high treason. All con- 
federates who had either directly participated in 
the murder or had helped or abetted the murderers, 
had failed to notify the state authorities of the im- 
pending murder, were guilty as charged. The prose- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 121 

cuting attorney then specified each separate case, 
and asked for a just punishment in pursuance with 
the law. 

38. On the following two days the attorneys for 
the defense spoke. Their task was a difficult one. 
The whole country being in the thralls of war, prac- 
tically for the very reason which caused the trial, 
what could they say in defense of self-confessed 
murderers and their allies. Yet, they acquitted 
themselves with high credit to their profession. Dr. 
Maw Feldbauer, Gavrilo Prinzip's attorney, argued 
that his client was the victim of the criminal higher- 
ups in Belgrade. Prinzip would like to appear as 
a national hero who had championed the cause of 
all Southern Slavs. In reality he was a poor de- 
luded youth who had been transformed into a fana- 
tic in Belgrade. Prinzip, so he said, had merely 
committed murder, not high treason. The attorney 
also argued that he had not yet accomplished his 
twentieth year at the time when he committed the 
murder. He pleaded for the mercy of the court. 
Concerning defendant, Blagoje Kerovic, Dr. Feld- 
bauer attempted to show that at the worst he had 
violated a minor paragraph of the criminal code 
only. 

Jakov Milovic he declared to be a mere rambler 
who had no part in either the murder or high trea- 
son. Forkazie had known nothing of the murder 
and should be acquitted. Next came Dr. Premuzics 
who used all his eloquence to show that Cabrinovic 
deserved clemency, because he had given exhibitions 



122 AUSTRIA -HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

of honest repentance and because he had evidently 
acted under the hypnotic influence of the powers in 
Belgrade. Misko Jovcmovic was merely guilty of 
having taken bombs and arms from his place to 
Doboj. The attorney tried to show that he had not 
been a confederate and was ignorant of the real use 
of these weapons. Mitar Kerovic was a peasant of 
too primitive intellectual powers to grasp the mean- 
ing of the whole plot. Branko Zagorac, so his at- 
torney said, did not appreciate the serious character 
of the whole proceeding and for this reason 
neglected to report same to the authorities. 

Dr. Pericic pleaded for Cvjetko Popovic, Svijan 
Stjepanovic, Momcinovic and Sadilo. His defense 
was their ignorance of the real purpose of the 
weapons which they had concealed. Judge Strup- 
pel argued that Trifko Grdbec had been a tool of 
others, while the State, so he alleged, had not made 
a case against Mico Micic, Jovo Kerovic and Marko 
Kerim. 

Dr. Zistler for Veljko Cubrilovic raised points of 
law. He argued that the court had no jurisdiction 
over his client. His client, moreover, had no knowl- 
edge of the use of the bombs and pistols. For his 
other client, Vaso Cubrilovic, he alleged his minor 
age as an extenuating circumstance. Ivo Kranjce- 
vic was a good, loyal Croatian who could not be sus- 
pected of high treason. 

Judge Malek tried to show that in the case of Ilic 
no connection existed between him and the Narodna 
Odbrana. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 123 

Defendant Djukic (Gyukic) was only partially 
guilty, inasmuch as he had said to Cubrilovic, that 
Ilic was preparing a big plot. For defendants 
Obren Milosevic and Kalenber, Judge Malek 
pleaded extenuating circumstances. 

After the prosecuting attorney had replied to all 
arguments a significant scene followed. All de- 
fendants stood up, declaring that they regretted 
what had happened. They were ignorant of the 
fact that the Crown Prince had children. They 
asked that the orphans be told that they were sorry 
for their deeds. The children should forgive them. 
Defendants said that they were not guilty. They 
had been deluded into the belief that they had been 
sacrificing themselves for a good cause. Cabrinovic, 
one of the three chief defendants, asked permission 
of the court to make a statement. Permission was 
given. In a longer address, often interrupted by 
sobs, he declared on his oath that he and his con- 
federates did not really intend to murder the Crown 
Prince. The plan of the murder plot originated 
from Belgrade. It was the outcome of their sojourn 
in Servia's capital, where they came in touch with 
the Servian Government people. They had there 
been feasted and "spoiled" by everybody who was 
in the lead in high government circles and the 
people. They had been deluded into the belief 
that they were doing something great and patri- 
otic. They did not really hate the Habsburg Dy- 
nasty, although they were not pleased with the 
system. 



124 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

The court then adjourned until the 28th of Octo- 
ber, when sentence was given. 

THE SENTENCE. 

Sentence in the famous trial was handed down 
on October 28th, that is exactly on the day four 
months after the murder was committed. 

Pursuant to Paragraphs 111 and 299, 210 of the 
Criminal Code, Gavrilo Prinzip, Nedeljko Cabrino- 
vic and Trifko Grabez, the three chief defendants, 
were found guilty of high treason and murder in the 
first degree. All three were given the highest pen- 
alty allowed by law to wit: twenty years in the 
penitentiary. The first named will be subjected to 
one day of fast in every month, the third named to 
one such day of fast in every three months. For the 
second, no such provision was made. In addition, 
all three of them will spend the day of the 28th of 
June of each year in a dark cell alone. 

The reason why death sentence was not applied in 
their case is due to the fact that they had not yet 
passed their twentieth year at the time of the com- 
mission of the murder. The Austrian law stipu- 
lates that no murderer can be sentenced to death 
who at the time of the murder has not yet attained 
his twentieth year. Under the Austrian law, a 
person under twenty has not yet reached the age of 
full responsibility. 

Danilo Hie, Veljko Cubrilovic, Misko Jovanovic, 
Nedo Kerovic and Jakov Milovic were found guilty 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 125 

of high treason and participation in the murder 
plot and were sentenced to death. 

The other defendants were sentenced as follows : 
Mitar Kerovic, for high treason, to life imprison- 
ment; Vaso Cubrilovic, for participation in acts 
of high treason, to sixteen years penitentiary with 
one day of fast every six months. 

Cvejtko Popovic, for participation in acts of high 
treason, to thirteen years penitentiary. 

Lazar Gyukic and Jovo Kranjcevic, for participa- 
tion in acts of high treason, to ten years peniten- 
tiary; Svijan Styepanovic, for the same crime, to 
seven years penitentiary; Branko Zagorae and 
Marko Perim, for acts in connection with high 
treason, to three years imprisonment. All of the 
forenamed have to spend the day of the 28th of 
June in a dark cell alone. 

Jovo Kerovic, Blagoje Kerovic, Nikola Forkazic, 
Dragan Kalenber, Miko Micic, Obren Milosevic, 
Ivan Momcinevic, Franjo Sadilo and Angela Sadilo 
were acquitted and forthwith released. 

CONCLUSION. 

And here ends the Sarajevo trial. I have en- 
deavored to recount all important incidents as 
truthfully as it is possible to do it. I have not 
tried to make things look worse than they were, 
nor have I sought to make them appear better. 
I have left out the mention of hearsay evidence 
almost entirely, and where I did report it, I stated 
explicitly that it was not based on first hand 



126 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

knowledge. Ordinarily, a record of a trial makes 
dry reading. This trial, however, was of such 
far-reaching consequences that it cannot fail to at- 
tract attention. I believe that the defendants had 
as fair a trial as could have been given them in any 
country. 

We have been constantly reading reports in the 
daily papers of the occupation of Sarajevo by the 
Servian and Montenegrin troops. The trial was 
stated to have taken place amidst the roaring 
thunder of the enemies' guns. Of course, these re- 
ports were more or less visionary. Sarajevo was 
never for a moment in danger of occupation. Its 
natural position makes it well nigh impregnable. 
Moreover, the enemy had at its very best hardly 
crossed the frontier. It is true, Sarajevo is very 
close to the Servian frontier, and this vicinity may 
have raised the expectations of both the enemy's 
generals and their sympathizers in the press. 

But when this is said, let us stop for a moment 
and consider how difficult the situation must have 
been for the judges and attorneys who played their 
parts in this world drama. Let us consider the re- 
sponsibility that everybody felt, the painstaking 
care that was taken by everybody to serve the ends 
of justice. 

We all are human and we all may be given to 
errors or blunders. Yet, from all tangible indica- 
tions, it seems that no miscarriage of justice has 
taken place in Sarajevo. We are proud to point to 
its outcome, because it brought a vindication to our 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 127 

country's cause. But this is not all. We are proud 
of our courts of justice, because they have always 
maintained their independence. We know of no 
Austrian or Hungarian judge who can be bribed, 
of none who would take cognizance of anybody or 
anything except his own conception of the* ideals 
of justice. Austria-Hungary is a monarchy, yet 
her court system is the very acme of democracy. In 
the performance of their official duties, Austro- 
Hungarian courts or judges will take the orders of 
nobody and nobody is high enough in the monarchy 
who could ever try to tell a court what it should do. 

I make these comments purposely, because at the 
time of the trial and at the time when sentence was 
passed, various editorials have appeared in Amer- 
ican papers, which were, to say the least, discour- 
aging. 

I will cite two at random. Both were published 
in a leading morning paper : 

"The world does not believe that the boy was 
the agent of the Servian government. No govern- 
ment would be so blind as to inspire a deed which 
must so redound to its disadvantage and its dis- 
credit. More probably he was merely an unbal- 
anced enthusiast, seeking to sacrifice his own 
life in striking a blow for his country. His mur- 
derous act was the opportunity which Austria 
awaited to strike a blow at the little Servian na- 
tion which was waxing dangerously ambitious. 



128 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

All the white books in- the world fail to bring 
conviction that Servia was, in any degree, guilty. 
"Prinzip is now on trial for his life in Sara- 
jevo. As far as Prinzip himself is concerned, the 
trial will be a mockery. There is no doubt of his 
guilt. The punishment of the murderer is his 
due. But the trial will go still further. It will 
be Austria's attempt to convict not Prinzip but 
the whole Servian nation. Twenty-two alleged 
conspirators must stand trial with Prinzip, and 
one cannot fancy that their chances for acquittal 
will be large. Through all these Servians every 
effort will be made to show that the Belgrade 
Government inspired the murder upon June 28. 
Austria is making a final desperate effort to clear 
her own skirts and to shift the responsibility for 
the epoch-making catastrophe in which she has 
involved Europe." 

"To have sentenced Prinzip and Gabrinovic to 
death would have been to place upon them direct 
responsibility for the. assassination. This would 
not be in harmony with the Austrian theory. 
Austria has insistently held that the two school- 
boys were merely unimportant tools in the hands 
of a body of Servian conspirators who acted with 
the cognizance, if not with the direct inspiration, 
of the Servian Government. The murder at Sara- 
jevo, committed by an irresponsible youth, act- 
ing solely of his own volition, would have been 
no excuse for the Austrian attack on Servia, 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 129 

which brought about the European war. The 
mercy shown to Prinzip is in accordance with 
the theory of a national Servian conspiracy for 
which the entire Servian nation merits punish- 
ment. 

"Twenty alleged conspirators were tried with 
Prinzip and Cabrinovic. Of these, four are con- 
demned to death, and one to life imprisonment. 
They are nameless in the dispatches, and the de- 
tails of the evidence against them are unknown. 
They are probably held to be important per- 
sonages in the murder plot. 

"It is not to be doubted that the court at Sara- 
jevo took cognizance of the desires of Vienna. Its 
judgment is a striking instance of consistency and 
of logical adherence to a theory." 

With no knowledge of local conditions, or of the 
facts in the case, these facts being at that time un- 
known to anybody, does the author of these edi- 
torials consider them a fair presentation of this 
trial? 

I trust that he who wrote these editorials will 
read my above report of this trial, and I trust that 
after having read it he will be man and American 
enough to admit that at least he made a mistake. 



IV.— HAS SERVIA ANY HISTORICAL CLAIMS 
OVER BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA? 

In the clash between Austria- Hungary and Ser- 
via, sympathizers of the latter have frequently ad- 
vanced the claim that in former times of history 
Bosnia and Herzegovina had been a part of Servia. 
According to them, Austria-Hungary in 1908 robbed 
Servia of what was her own under the rights of his- 
tory. Although historical rights, if once lost, can 
hardly again serve as a basis of claims to recover 
sovereign rights over a territory, we will for the 
sake of argument assume that they can. If Bosnia 
really had belonged to Servia prior to its incorpora- 
tion in any other country, then under this assump- 
tion, the claims of her sympathizers existed at the 
time when Austria-Hungary "robbed" her of these 
two provinces in 1908 and also exist today. Servia, 
in fact, claims that she is fighting now to establish 
them again. 

What is history's verdict concerning these claims? 

EARLY HISTORY OF BOSNIA. 

Omitting the remote times when Bosnia was part 
of the Roman Empire and the invasions of the 
Goths, we have reliable information concerning the 
past of Bosnia as far back as the 12th century, 
A. D. Bosnia was then originally divided into 

130 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 131 

various small principalities under the leadership of 
so-called Zsupans. The most important ones were 
Bosna, Ozora, Rama and Chelm. Their inhabitants, 
a mixture of Illyrians and Southern Slavs, adopted 
Christianity very early. Their Bishop of Bosna was 
subordinated to the Archbishop of Spalato, and 
later to the Archbishop of Ragusa. In the 12th 
century an oriental orthodox sect, the Bulgarian 
"bogumils," related to the Byzantinian Paulicians 
(also called Patarenes), began to gain strong foot- 
hold. Their appearance on the scene sowed the 
seed for future feuds. 

Beginning from the reign of Coloman the Libra- 
rian, King of Hungary, who also conquered Croatia, 
and more particularly from King Stefan II of Hun- 
gary ( beginning of 12th century ) , the Zsupans of the 
various principalities which today constitute Bos- 
nia and Herzegovina recognized the feudal lordship 
of the Kings of Hungary. During the reign of King 
Stefan II Emperor John of Byzancz, that is, the 
Greek Empire, repeatedly invaded Bosnia and 
Syrmia from the South. King Stefan II defeated 
his troops in 1129, whereupon they made peace. 
In 1130, just before his death, King Stefan ar- 
ranged for the marriage of his successor, King B61a 
the Blind, of Hungary, with Ilona, daughter of 
Uros, Chief Zsupan of the Racz (who ruled over a 
territory comprising the Servia of today). Bela the 
Blind conquered Dalmatia from Venice and also 
Spalato. Subsequently he occupied all the terri- 
tory in the valley of the Sprecse, which possesses 



132 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

rich salt mines, (practically the only salt mines of 
the Balkans). These territories received the group 
name of "Banate of So" from these salt mines, So 
being the equivalent of salt in Hungarian. He also 
gathered in Rama and took the title of King of 
Rama in or about 1138. 

Hungary's influence over Bosnia increased enor- 
mously after the death of Emperor Manuel of By- 
zancz, in 1180. King Bela III of Hungary was a 
successful conqueror in the Balkans. He crossed 
the River Save, conquered the fortresses of Barancs- 
and Belgrade in 1182. He even proceeded as far as 
Sophia in 1183. 

At the time of the death of King Emmeric of 
Hungary, the kings of Hungary had the following 
titles: King of Hungary, Croatia, Rama, Servia, 
Halics, Bulgaria and Bosnia. The territories of 
Croatia, Dalmatia, and Bosnia were incorporated 
in the Hungarian Kingdom of those days. 

CZAR DUSAN, THE DREAMER. 

Under King Robert Charles of Hungary (of the 
dynasty of the Anjous) Hungary in 1319 conquered 
even Macedonia, and Milutin, then King of Servia, 
was defeated by him. 

During the reign of King Robert Charles, Stephan 
Dusan ascended the throne of Servia in 1331. Ste- 
phan Dusan was a dreamer. He evolved in his mind 
the idea of a "Great Servian Empire," which should 
include the whole Balkans first and the whole 
Roman Empire next. After having conquered the 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 133 

larger part of Servia and having built up Belgrade, 
he had himself crowned Serb and Greek Emperor 
and desired to be known as the "almost Lord of the 
whole Roman Empire." In those days to hold a 
position in the world titles were even more required 
than today. He selected Venice as his national 
ally to rule over the Byzantinian Empire. Venice 
was then one of the dominant powers of Europe. 
To have Venice's support for the conquest of the 
world meant as much then as the United States' or 
Germany's support would mean today. But he 
seemed to have an unsteady mind, for he soon aban- 
doned this idea and began to invade the neighbor- 
ing territories. His troops overran Halomfold, 
Dalmatia and Bosnia. As a prosecutor of Catholics 
he was welcomed in this latter country by the "bo- 
gumils," the orthodox sectarians. As an enemy of 
King Louis the Great of Hungary, son of Robert 
Charles, he again had the sympathies of Venice, 
which feared the great power of Louis. There also 
was another motive that prompted him to raid 
Bosnia. Stephan Kotromanovics, also called Ste- 
phan II, was the Chief Zsupan of Bosnia (1323- 
1353 ) . He was the father of the beautiful "banilla" 
Elizabeth, for whose hand Dusan had aspired in 
vain, having been jilted in favor of King Louis the 
Great. Whether it was an actual overthrow in the 
game of love or whether King Louis seemed a more 
acceptable son in-law to Stephan II is not easy to 
say. However, when Czar Dusan broke into Bos- 
nian territory he was defeated by Stephan II with 



134 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

the assistance of King Louis' troops, and when he 
made a second attempt he was decisively beaten 
by his luckier rival, King Louis the Great himself, 
in 1354. This was shortly after the death of Ste- 
phan II. Stephan Tvartko, cousin of the latter, 
was his successor, but for a while at least his 
mother, Ilona Szubics, ruled, who yielded in every- 
thing to the wishes of King Louis and the Pope. 
For this subserviency King Louis created Stephan 
Tvartko King of "Bosnia and the Adriatic Shore." 
Dusan could do naught. After his defeat at the 
hands of King Louis he found himself in an un- 
enviable position and would indeed have fared 
badly had the Pope not intervened in his behalf. 
In his plight he conceived the rather ingenious idea 
to declare himself for the Catholic Church and to 
recognize the Holy Father's supremacy. This was 
a strong feather in his cap and the Pope insisted 
that King Louis the Great should not harass "a 
faithful son" of the Catholic Church. King Louis 
was anyway not a "persona gratissima" with the 
Pope. His disfavor was due to intrigues of wicked 
Queen Joanna of Naples, ex-wife of Louis' brother, 
whom she had ignominiously put to death. And so 
it came that King Louis the Great and "Czar" Du- 
san made peace with each other in 1355. Dusan, 
from being a vassal of King Louis, became a vassal 
of the Pope ; but only for a short while. For hardly 
had peace been concluded, than he threw all his 
Catholic vows overboard and expelled the Pope's 
legates from his country. Troubles then began to 



AUSTRIA HUNGARY AND THE WAR 135 

grow fast for him until death overtook him on 
December 20, 1355. 

I thought I would give a little longer synopsis of 
his meteoric career. I wish to render full justice 
to his abilities as a ruler and diplomat. I find it 
impossible, however, to support his country's claim 
over Bosnia in connection with his reign. Apart 
from the fact that he had a few straggling followers 
among the "bogumil" malcontents, he has never 
actually held sway over Bosnia. Moreover, by 
virtue of his two defeats by Stephen II and by 
King Louis, whatever weight he may have carried 
with his followers and friends must have been 
greatly eclipsed by the former. His successors 
amounted to nothing, and in 1363 Stephan Uros, of 
Raczorszag-Servia, was again defeated by King 
Louis. 

MAP OF BALKAN STATES IN FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 

In this connection it is interesting to throw a 
glance at the map of the Balkans of those days. I 
have a map of the year 1382 before me, and this is 
what it says. The banates of So and Ozora (which 
then took the place of Northern Bosnia of today) 
belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary. Also a large 
part of the Southern Bosnia of our day. The nom- 
inal Bosnia of those days began south of Visehrad 
and Travnik and reached as far as Durazzo and 
south of Prizrend, where it bordered on the Byzan- 
tinian (Greek) Empire. The banate of Macso in- 
cluded Belgrade and surroundings. Servia proper 



136 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

was south of it with the cities Stolac, Ravanica, 
Krusevac and Nis (Nissa). The banate of Szoreny 
was to the southeast of Hungary, in the corner 
formed by the Danube and the Transylvanian 
Alps. Havasalfold was bordering on Szoreny to the 
east and Moldva and Bessarabia to the northeast 
from Szoreny. All or most of these banates w T ere at 
the time of Louis the Great, as also frequently be- 
fore his reign and after, vassal territories of the 
kings of Hungary. Croatia was then where Dal- 
matia is today, under the rule of Hungary ; as was 
a large part of Italy. This clearly indicates that 
if any historical claims are to be laid on Bosnia 
and other banates or principalities, as for instance 
on Servia herself, by anybody, they can bedaid by 
Hungary, and of course, incidentally, by Austria- 
Hungary. 

HUNGARY SUZERAIN OF BOSNIA AND SERVIA. 

During the reign of Charles II of Hungary, 
who was a weakling, Bosnia threw off her Hun- 
garian bonds of vassalship temporarily, but under 
Stephan Dobisa, King of Bosnia, when Emperor- 
King Sigismund ruled over Hungary, around 1390, 
Bosnia submitted to the protectorate of Hungary 
again. In 1404 she recognized Sigismond definitely 
as her suzerain. Sigismond donated Ozora (see 
above) to a Hungarian nobleman, John Garay, and 
joined the banate of So to the banate of Macso. 
As a further illustrating fact of history I will say 
here that under George Brankovics, adopted son 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 137 

of Stephan Lazarevics, also called the "despot" of 
Macso, Belgrade, Macso and the fortress of Pokol 
were incorporated in Hungary (1426-27). 

At the time of the world-famous Hunyadi's rule 
over Hungary, Thomas Ostoja, "King of Bosnia," 
betook himself personally to the Diet of Szeged in 
Hungary (1459) and made allegiance to King 
Mathias Corvinus, as his liege lord and sovereign. 
Mathias gave Servia to Stephan Ostoja and made 
him King of Bosnia later, while of course maintain- 
ing Hungary's suzerainty rights over both coun- 
tries. 

In 1461 the King of Bosnia, in a fit of unfulfilled 
ambition, aspired to independence. He asked a 
crown from the Pope and got it over the protests 
of Mathias. This, however, spelled ruin to Chris- 
tian Bosnia, for the Sultan shortly after invaded 
both Servia and Bosnia, and capturing the Bosnian 
King, ordered him decapitated. Mathias, although 
everlastingly engaged in greater conquests in the 
north and west of his vast realm, could spare enough 
time to rush down to Bosnia and defeat the Sul- 
tan's troops. He recovered Jaica and a large part 
of Bosnia ( 1464 ) . When after his departure Jaica 
again changed hands with the Sultan, Mathias de- 
termined to strike a strong blow. He completely 
routed the Turkish army on October 13, 1479, at the 
famous battle of Kenyermezo. Nor was this all ; for 
in 1480 he followed up his success by recapturing 
Jaica once more and by conquering Uzora, Szre- 
bernik and the surroundings of Jaica, 



138 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

These territories remained with the crown of 
Hungary until the battle of Mohacs, the battle that 
sounded Hungary's fate in 1526, when the Turks 
took possession of a large portion of Hungary. 

Bosnia and Herzegovina have since stayed under 
Ottoman yoke until practically the days of our 
era, 1878, although temporarily the victorious 
troops of Prince Eugen of Savoy have progressed 
as far as Sarajevo (1697). 

BOSNIA SINCE 1878. SERVIANS CLAIM OVER BOSNIA 
WITHOUT FOUNDATION. 

What happened in 1878 with Bosnia and Herze- 
govina is familiar enough to the American public 
and need not be dwelt upon with any length. We 
have been made the trustees of Bosnia and Herze- 
govina by the will of all the Powers assembled at 
the Congress of Berlin, to pacify the people of these 
two countries and to restore order there. Austria- 
Hungary has carried out her mission faithfully, 
although this has — in the beginning — cost the lives 
of many of her soldiers. She has carried out her 
mission at the expense of her blood and her good 
money. She has built churches and schools, roads 
and railway lines, developed commerce, reorganized 
the finances of these countries and planted western 
civilization in a place where for centuries the dark- 
est superstition and ignorance reigned supreme. 

What right had Servia to call her to account in 
1908 and since then, when Austria-Hungary, after 
30 years of faithful administration, acquired the 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 139 

rights of a lawful owner from Turkey, the former 
owner, with a regular deed of transfer, by paying 
the price in a regular bargain with the rightful 
owner? Servia had no claim whatever on Bosnia. 
She had never ruled over Bosnia, as was plainly 
shown above; but rather has she been under the 
rule of Hungary for many years in the past. Aus- 
tria-Hungary, on the strength of these historical 
rights, has never laid claim to her territory. 

Yet Servia has been using and is still using de- 
vious means of a would-be pretender. There are 
people, apparently many people, in the United 
States, who seem to give her credit for her alleged 
claims. Perhaps these people have in mind that 
there are some Servians living in Bosnia and Her- 
zegovina and that for this reason the two countries 
had better be united. But if the theory were ac- 
cepted that all countries harboring people who 
speak the same language should be united under one 
rule, where would it lead to? England could claim 
to be the rightful ruler over the United States or 
vice versa, and Spain to be the logical ruler over 
certain South American states, etc. This theory 
would lead ad absurdum and no serious person can 
really uphold it. 

We have charged Servia and have full evidence in 
hand that, with her official aid she has incited our 
people in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia and South- 
ern Hungary to high treason and disruption of the 
monarchy. 

Servia ignored the charges, nay, scorned them. 



140 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

Because of other denial of justice, we were com- 
pelled to take the law into our hands. Thereupon 
Servia began to appeal to the world in general and 
to the United States in particular, that she was so 
small and Austria-Hungary so big and it was unfair 
for a big fellow to hit a small fellow. 

I do not say that a criminal who stands at the bar 
in expectation of his punishment, is not deserving 
of compassion, but would this compassion be well 
applied if it were to go to defeat the ends of justice, 
by interfering with the judge , creating public senti- 
ment against him, because he would not yield to 
maudlin sentiment and enforce laiv and justice? 

This is in substance the case of Servia and Aus- 
tria-Hungary. But Servia sidesteps again and pres- 
ents a plea of outraged historical and ethnographi- 
cal rights. We have in full fairness to Servians 
plea tried to discover a ground — if even a flimsy 
one — to her alleged claims, but find none. I think 
whoever has carefully read the above analysis will 
say with me that there is none. 



V.— THE GREAT RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA IN 
GALICIA, BUKOVINA AND THE NORTH- 
EASTERN DISTRICTS OF HUNGARY 
BEFORE THE WAR. 

When, in the early days of September, news came 
from Europe that Lemberg, capital of Galicia, had 
surrendered, this was heralded by the Russians 
as a tremendous victory. In their highly colored 
official and semi-official reports, they endeavored 
to convey the impression that a tremendous number 
of guns had been captured by their armies prior 
to the fall of Lemberg, and the number of Austro- 
Hungarian prisoners, killed and wounded, in their 
reports, equalled whole army corps. 

The day after my arrival in New York from Eu- 
rope the morning papers placed the number of Aus- 
tro-Hungarian guns captured in connection with 
the successful so-called siege of Lemberg at 200. 
The noon editions based on fresh "authentic" re- 
ports from Petrograd raised it to 400, and the Even- 
ing Telegram came out with a headliner that 2,000 
guns had been taken. From subsequent reliable in- 
formation it appeared, however, that there never 
had been a regular siege of Lemberg. The Rus- 
sians approached the city after the Austro-Hun- 
garian troops had left it for nearly two whole days. 
Not one gun was captured by the Russians on this 

141 



142 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

occasion, as there were none there. The city had 
been evacuated in order to safeguard Lemberg 
against a bombardment and destruction of its public 
buildings. Lemberg is not a fortified city, and 
what earthworks there were around the city were 
of merely temporary character. It was from the 
beginning, clear to the leaders of the Austro-Hun- 
garian army that it would be well-nigh impossible 
for any army to hold the entire Gaiician and Bu- 
kovinian frontier against the enemy at every point. 
This frontier has an extension of about 700 miles, 
and there are no natural boundaries in the shape 
of mountains or even rivers, separating the two 
provinces from Russia. 

Apart from these humanitarian and strategic con- 
siderations, however, there were other reasons 
which have also undoubtedly influenced the com- 
mand of the Imperial and Royal Army to tempor- 
arily abandon Lemberg and parts of Eastern Gali- 
cia and the Bukovina to the enemy. We are fully 
aware today that Russia has carefully prepared 
this war for decades in the past. Just as we know 
today that Russia was all along the prime instiga- 
tor of Servia against Austria-Hungary, we know 
that the late Mr. von Hartwig, her former minister 
in Belgrade, had been one of the chief conspirators 
in helping to weave the meshes which should entrap 
the monarchy in a war with the whole world. We 
also know that Russia has for many years in the 
past prepared the ground in Galicia, Bukovina and 
the northeastern counties of Hungary to facilitate 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 143 

prospective military operations in those districts. 
It must have occurred even to the general American 
public, not familiar with the history and conditions 
of our countries, that the Russian invasion into 
Austria-Hungary has been directed against these 
particular districts. I will endeavor in this chapter 
to give some general outlines of how these Russian 
ante-war preparations have been made. 

Speaking in broad terms, the great Russian prop- 
aganda in Austria-Hungary has been active since 
1843. The Russian Panslav author, Pogodin, is 
credited with having originated this propaganda. 
From the year 1843 he made extensive travels all 
over Galicia and tried to sow the seed of future 
foment. This does not indicate that Russians have 
not been coveting the conquest of parts or the whole 
of the monarchy farther back even. This was, 
however, the first conscious actual move on Russia's 
part, which resulted in the foundation of the secret 
"Pogodinian Russo-Galician Colony." 

A professor of Lemberg University and other in- 
tellectual men entered as members. Their task 
was to win over the broader masses of the popula- 
tion. The Russian invasion of 1849, in Hungary, 
acted, of course, as a strong incentive to develop 
this propaganda. The two leading men of the move- 
ment were the Royal Hungarian Councillor, Adolph 
I. Dobzsjanski (Dobranszky), and later on Ivan 
Naumovicz, who was both a priest and a member 
of the Austrian diet. Through their agency papers 
and pamphlets were issued all over East Galicia, 



144 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

Northern Bukovina and Northeastern Hungary, ad- 
vocating the sending out of students and professors 
to Russian schools and colleges. They were ex- 
pected to return as trained leaders of the Pan-Rus- 
sian movement. 

I might draw here tne attention of my readers 
to the analoguous way adopted during a good many 
years by Japan in conducting her Japanese propa- 
ganda in China. Through official and semi-official 
agencies a large number of Chinese students have 
been for many years attracted to Nippon's shores. 
To the author, who during his ten years' residence 
in the Far East, has become more or less intimately 
acquainted with the people of China and Japan, 
there can be no doubt that Japan has sinister de- 
signs against China. Her methods are those of a 
persistent propaganda to win over the souls and 
minds of the nation's future leaders for her cause. 
Just as it would be a deplorable result for the whole 
world if the scheming little Japanese plotter ever 
gained his ends in China, it would be no less re- 
grettable if the arch-plotter and trouble-monger, 
Russia, were to win against Austria-Hungary and 
Germany. 

Russia's propaganda had one great advantage 
over Japan's propaganda in China, in that it in- 
volved religious motives, and a religious propa- 
ganda is the strongest possible ally to the political 
promoter, as history has taught us many a time. 
Under the pretext of familiarizing members of the 
Greek Catholic Church with the alleged superior 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 145 

precepts and rites of the Russian Orthodox Church, 
Russia obtained her introduction into many house- 
holds. Her open advocacy of a political propa- 
ganda would have doubtlessly made her suspicious 
and barred her entry. In this respect the evidence 
in the famous trial of Olga Hrabar, her father, 
Adolph Dobranszky, Naumovicz, editor Markow 
and Ploszczanski, in the year 1882, for high treason, 
thoroughly substantiates my above comments. But 
even to a greater extent this joint propaganda be- 
came apparent through the disclosures of the sen- 
sational trial at Maramarossziget, Hungary, 1913. 
I will have occasion to amplify this statement here- 
after. 

The leaders of the Russian propaganda in Buko- 
vina were the Gerowski brothers, grandsons of the 
above named Court Councillor Adolf Dobranszky. 
Behind all stood and stands the "Slavic Benevolent 
Society" in St. Petersburg (Petrograd), supplying 
everybody with money. To a special department 
of this society the "Galickaja Rus" is entrusted the 
organized direction of this propaganda. Count 
Wladimir Bobrinski — the same who carries on the 
"temporary" functions of a Russo-Galician Gov- 
ernor — was and is the soul of it. Through his ef- 
forts hundreds of thousands of rubles were collected 
to further the Pan-Russian ideas and "Neoslavism" 
— and in connection with the winning of souls, 
money was spent lavishly. Count Bobrinski made 
an extensive trip in Galicia and Bukovina in 1908. 
He was, if not the star witness, undoubtedly the 



146 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

most prominent witness in the trial of Maramaros- 
sziget. His statement : 'We shall not rest until the 
Russian flag flies on the Carpathians" is still un- 
forgotten and evidently was a strong feather in his 
cap to earn him the temporary governorship of 
Galicia. 

To illustrate how far the underground machina- 
tions of the Pan-Russian propagandists had gone 
shortly before the outbreak of the war, I will cite 
the words of one of the leaders of this propaganda 
in Galicia. These words were spoken in connection 
with a visit of Russians in Galicia on July 28th, 
1908, to whom this leader wished to express thanks 
for their visit. "We thank you," he said, "as the 
representatives of the ruling parties in Russia, that 
you have not forgotten the brothers of subjugated 
Russia" This goes to show that they really con- 
sider these provinces as parts of the Russian Em- 
pire. The reason is evident. Russia, in the course 
of years, realized that Austria-Hungary, by grant- 
ing her Ruthenian subjects the free use of their lan- 
guage and other privileges, became a growing men- 
ace to Russia's own thirty-five or more millions of 
Ruthenians in Southern Russia, whom the latter, 
on her side, had tried in vain to despoil of their 
language and nationality by amalgamating them 
completely. Ruthenians in Russia would soon be- 
come aware of how much better their brothers in 
Austria-Hungary fared and would clamor for more 
rights, which of course Russia, faithful to her re- 
actionary traditions, was unwilling to grant. Hence 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 147 

her counter-moves in Galicia and Bukovina, in 
which religious fanaticism was called to play such 
a prominent part. 

RUSSIA'S ACTIVITIES IN GALICIA. 

Through her persistent efforts and a gold stream 
of rubles, Russia succeeded in the last 50 years in 
winning over the peasants of whole districts, par- 
ticularly those of Zloczow, Sanok, Brody, Przem- 
yslany, Zborow, Turka, Zolkiew and Zydaczow. I 
named these because our war experiences up to date 
have shown that in these districts the Russian in- 
vaders have found more or less willing confederates. 
Had it not been for her underhanded methods and 
wholesale bribes, Russia, in spite of the tremendous 
odds in her favor, would never have been able to 
achieve what little she has achievel in the length 
of time. I have demonstrated in another chapter 
that the motley nationalities of Austria-Hungary 
are all fighting with staunch loyalty for the mon- 
archy's cause. The rumors circulated by the 
enemy's press to the effect that wholesale desertions 
have occurred and are occurring daily in the Im- 
perial and Royal army, are bold lies made out of 
whole cloth. There have been no defections of 
whatever small proportions. Russia, however, had 
the population of whole sections on the frontier in 
her pay, and she has utilized these wholesale bribes 
to the best of her ability in the course of her mili- 
tary operations. Cyril Krylowski, librarian of the 
"Duchownaja Akademia" in Kiew, the prime mover 



148 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

of the Russophile propaganda next to Count Bob- 
rinski, is credited with the ante-war statement that 
27,000 to 30,000 peasants had been so well "pre- 
pared" by the Russian emissaries that they could 
be safely relied upon in time of war. In addition 
to these peasants the Russophile propagandists have 
never, however, neglected to affiliate with certain 
intellectual leaders of eastern Galicia; attorneys, 
judges, college professors, etc. For obvious reasons 
I will suppress the names of the leading conspira- 
tors, although I wish to say that it is hoped that 
they will be unable to play their sinister part any 
more. 

But above all it was through the organization 
of societies that the Pan-Russian propaganda in 
Galicia has received a strong impetus. The "Mich- 
ael Kaczkowski Society" was one of the leading 
societies of this genre. It was founded in 1875 to 
counteract the activities of the Ukrainian (i. e., 
Neo-Ruthenian) society "Proswita," hostile to 
Russia. Reverend Naumovicz was its founder, 
although the name which the society bears is bor- 
rowed from the name of a Circuit Court judge who 
had left his whole fortune (about 80,000 gulden) 
to public instruction and cultural purposes. Orig- 
inally this society was a literary club, holding 
meetings, where lectures on arts and poetry were 
made. It also issued a periodical. When, however, 
Reverend Naumovicz was elected to the Austrian 
Diet, he became entangled with the above men- 
tioned Court Councillor Dobransky, and through 



AUSTRIA HUNGARY AND THE WAR 149 

him, with some leaders of Russian society in 
Vienna. Soon the Russian Embassy in Vienna be- 
came interested in him and his society and an an- 
nual subsidy of about 12,000 rubles was secured 
from the Russian Government to further the ends 
of the society. It is perhaps superfluous to em- 
phasize that thereafter this society was turned into 
a bulwark of Russophile sentiment. This society 
numbered approximately 20,000 members at the 
outbreak of the war. 

The Kaczkowski Society is also in close connec- 
tion with the so-called Stauropigian Institute in 
Lemberg, which was known to act as the go-between 
for all financial transactions between this and other 
societies and Russian Government. When a short- 
age of funds occurred, when one or the other so- 
ciety was in financial straits, this institute was 
always found a ready helper with Russian money. 

Another noteworthy society was the "Russkie 
Druzyny," which in connection with her fire engine 
department entertained a whole military organiza- 
tion, and the curious part of it was that this organi- 
zation used the same commands and a great many 
practices in force with the Russian infantry. 

The "Narodni Dom," a leading national institu- 
tion in Lemberg, erected to help needy students 
financially and otherwise, with a large library and 
museum, has also lately been subjected to strong 
Russophile influence. 

But not only societies and clubs were put into 
service by the unscrupulous Russophile propagan- 



150 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

dists. Within the last decade particularly, a num- 
ber of savings banks, credit and loan associations 
were founded in some of the cities close to the Rus- 
sian fontier, in Brody, Kolomea, Sanok, Gorlice, 
with the more or less apparent purpose of support- 
ing the ends of this propaganda. As late as last 
year leading directors of these institutes obtained 
a loan from Russia of two million rubles. The 
successful outcome of this financial transaction 
was chiefly due to Count Bobrinsky and the Russian 
Orthodox bishop in Wladimir Wolysk. The Benev- 
olent Slavic Society in St. Petersburg (Petrograd) 
has also been a primary factor in all financial aids. 
It has repeatedly arranged collections in St. Peters- 
burg for "the needs of Austrian Russians in Gali- 
cia." One such collection is said to have yielded 
upwards of 3,000,000 rubles. Money opens almost 
every gate. Is it to be wondered if the Russian 
army has found a certain number of confederates 
in East Galicia? The New York Evening Telegram 
would have been more justified in reporting the 
"successful capture of 2,000 consciences instead of 
2,000 guns" with the aid of almighty "Rubles" ! 

The Russophile propaganda has of course inci- 
dentally made good use of the press. Within the 
last ten or fifteen years quite a number of papers 
favoring schismatic and pro-Russian tendencies 
have been published. One, called Lemko, is a per- 
iodical, which is sent in many hundreds of copies 
to readers in the United States, for, strange as it 
may seem to the American public, Russia entertains 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 151 

here quite an active pro-Russian propaganda among 
the Ruthenian immigrants from Galicia, Bukovina 
and Hungary. 

Schools and churches, however, have proved the 
most effective mediums. When, in the year 1910, 
a number of schools in Lemberg, Kolomea, Stanis- 
lau, Tarnopol, Brody, Zloczow, Sambor, Sanok and 
Przemysl, subsidized by Russia, were visited by the 
official school inspectors, it was found that in these 
schools nothing but Russian was taught. Pupils 
had been told to hate and despise Ruthenians. Books 
of history dealt with Galicia as a province of Rus- 
sia. The only maps found were those of Russia. 
Is it to be wondered that the pupils, after leaving 
these schools, were bound to become, when grown 
up, apostles of the Russian cause? 

The Russian Church propaganda in Galicia and 
Bukovina (see below) was carried on with a great 
amount of cunning. A distinction must be made 
here between the Greek Oriental Church and the 
Russian Orthodox Church. The former is recog- 
nized in Austria and the respective congregations 
are under the orders of the Greek Oriental Metro- 
politan in Czernowitz. The latter is not recognized. 
This state of affairs compelled the Russian Church 
authorities to adopt secret means of propaganda. 
Ruthenian youths of Austrian citizenship were first 
sent to Russian monasteries and theological col- 
leges in Russia at the expense of the Russian Or- 
thodox Church. Those who qualified after the ter- 
mination of their studies were sent back to Gali- 



152 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

cian villages well supplied with funds and para- 
phernalia of their church rites and began to make 
proselytes for the Kussian Church. The parents of 
those youths were only too willing to give them up, 
as thereby the expenses of their household were de- 
creased ; moreover, the future of the boys seemed as- 
sured. We know also that Russian popes (this is 
the current name for the priests of the Russian 
Church) were sent to Galicia as emissaries to or- 
ganize the church districts. There were three of such 
districts at the outbreak of the war : in Grab, Cielaz 
and Zalucze. Whenever news of conversions of the 
village people in these districts transpired in large 
numbers, it was given out that these conversions 
accrued to the Greek Oriental Church to allay sus- 
picion. Attention was really attracted only when 
the Nowoje Wremja, on June 11, 1909, published 
an appeal of Archbishop Anthony of Wolhynia. In 
this appeal mention was made of a committee to 
erect a Russian church in Zalucze and contribu- 
tions were also asked and made in Russia for 
churches in other Galician districts. In 1911, and 
since the schismatic propaganda became very active, 
there were isolated instances in which some of the 
Russian Church emissaries openly harangued the 
people to break off from Austria-Hungary and be- 
come Russian subjects. As recently as 1911 they 
openly told the people that the Czar's troops were 
sure to invade Galicia very soon and prepartaions 
to the effect were in progress. In a few instances 
the Greek Catholic clergy also encouraged this 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 153 

propaganda. It is claimed that the pilgrimages of 
Ruthenian peasants of Galicia to Poczajew and to 
Kiew in Russia had been assisted by the Greek 
Catholic clergy. The brunt of the responsibility in 
connection with these conversions is, however, laid 
down to the charge of the Russian emissaries. The 
latter were also more in favor with the people, 
because they did not collect regular church fees 
as prescribed for the clergy of the Greek Catho- 
lic Church, but performed their church services 
gratis. 

BUKOVINA AND THE RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA. 

I have given larger space to comments on Rus- 
sian ante-war activities in Galicia because they were 
at all times more pronounced there than in any 
other parts of the monarchy. Russian propaganda 
was, however, by no means a neligible factor in 
either the Austrian Crownland of Bukovina, or the 
Kingdom of Hungary. In the former, as was stated 
above, the Gerowski brothers in Czernowitz and 
the whole family of the Gerowskis were leaders of 
this pro-Russian propaganda. This family, through 
its relatives and other close friends, has entertained 
continued relations with the leaders of the Russo- 
phile party in Russia. Most of its members were 
involved in trials for high treason. The names of 
these leaders I deem it out of place to mention here. 
This study merely attempts to show to impartial 
readers, from another angle, that Russia had been 
preparing for this war against Austria-Hungary 



154 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

for many years in the past, and her assertions to the 
contrary are discredited by countless proofs. 

The strongest factors in the pro-Kussian propa- 
ganda in Bukovina were the press and the churches. 
Kupczanko, editor of the Swisda, sl violent pro- 
Kussian paper, was involved in a trial for high 
treason in 1892, but he fled to Eussia before punish- 
ment could be meted out to him ; it is believed with 
the aid of the Kussian Embassy in Vienna. 

Another prominent press organ was the Russka 
Prawda. This paper made it its particular task 
to demonstrate that the Kuthenians had no claim 
to existence as an independent race of people. Their 
language was — so it was alleged — merely an in- 
ferior dialect of Russian, and Ruthenians were 
really Russians. This paper also openly disre- 
garded the existence of Austria-Hungary and es- 
poused Russian policies only. It had no regular 
list of subscribers, but the copies were mailed under 
cover to a large list of people in Bukovina and 
northern Hungary free of charge. It was of course 
subsidized, if not entirely owned by the "Slavic 
Benevolent Society" in St. Petersburg, as were 
other similar sheets. 

About twenty per cent, of the Greek Oriental 
clergy in Bukovina has been in the course of time 
won over to the pro-Russian propaganda. Their 
activities were of course carried on secretly. One 
means consisted in the fitting out of pilgrimages 
of peasants on a large scale to the monasteries near 
Kiew and Odessa. The expenses of such trips were 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 155 

borne entirely by the "Slavic Benevolent Society" 
in St. Petersburg, which also financed similar pil- 
grimages to Russian monasteries in Palestina (Asia 
Minor ) . The pilgrims were in return for gratuitous 
trips expected to encourage the spread of the schis- 
matic propaganda, to sell Russian prayerbooks, 
pictures of the Czar and his family, etc., etc. 

RUSSIAN INTRIGUES IN HUNGARY. 

If the close proximity of Russia had much to do 
with the spread of a systematic pro-Russian propa*- 
ganda in Bukovina and Galicia, matters stood dif- 
ferently with Hungary, separated as it is from 
the Austrian borderlands by a mighty chain of 
mountains, the Carpathians. 

Yet have we heard that quite considerable por- 
tions of the Russian army had attempted to cross 
the passes of the Carpathians and had invaded some 
northeastern counties. The counties of Maramaros 
and Ung were the battlefields of these raids. The 
total number of the invaders was variously placed 
at from 30,000 to 50,000 men. They were, however, 
defeated by our valiant defenders and either killed 
or taken prisoners. At the foot of the Uzsok pass 
alone 8,000 killed Russians were buried, and it is 
believed that hardly any were allowed to return 
to tell the tale. Soon after this ill-fated raid had 
begun, speculation was rife as to how it was pos- 
sible for the Russians to cross the Carpathians at 
all. This huge mountain range, completely encir- 
cling Hungary, has always been considered im- 



156 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

passable for larger bodies of troops and their trans- 
ports. Subsequent events have of course substan- 
tially proved the correctness of this theory, inas- 
much as the Russians do not seem to have been able 
to carry their transports over the mountains. The 
fact stands out, however, that they have crossed 
the mountains with their cavalry, infantry and 
some machine gun detachments. The riddle was 
solved with the arrival of the home papers. Some 
of the Ruthenian peasant folk had showed the way 
to the Russians by scattering about Indian corn 
and barley on some of the secret mountain roads, 
which are not in use for the general traffic. Russian 
scouts followed up these chicken-feed trails and 
opened the way to the main army. These Ruthen- 
ians were of course proselytes of the Russian ante- 
war propaganda. 

It would be utterly unjust — as attempts have al- 
ready been made in various papers — to brand the 
entire Ruthenian population of the monarchy as 
traitors, because some of their number have been 
black sheep. Nothing would be farther from the 
truth and real facts. The Ruthenian population 
has for immemorial time been unswervedly loyal 
to Austria-Hungary. As a whole body Ruthenians 
have always been hostile to Russia, and thirty-five 
million of Ruthenians (or Ukrainians) in Russia 
will undoubtedly bless the day and hour when they 
will be liberated from Russian yoke and gain an 
independent state of their own. Ruthenians have 
proud historic traditions, and their rejuvenation 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 157 

would be undoubtedly a hoped-for, splendid achieve- 
ment of the present world struggle, just as the 
creation of a Polish Kingdom would be another 
momentous success. 

The isolated cases of Ruthenian treachery are due 
exclusively to the Russian propaganda before the 
war. Practically the first news of the Russian 
invasion into Hungarian territory reached the 
world from the Hungarian town of Huszt. Now 
this little town is in the closest vicinity of the 
township of Iza, which was always known as the 
hotbed of pro-Russian activities. The people of this 
township, as well as those of the neighboring vil- 
lages of Keselymezo and Lipcse are mostly descend- 
ants of fief holders from the historic Rakoczy 
period. There are only very few illiterates among 
them, and their reputation for cunning is pro- 
verbial. They were won over to the Russian Or- 
thodox Church in a similar way as their brethren 
in Galicia and Bukovina had been. Russian emis- 
saries, styling themselves "apostles of the common 
people," visited them, bringing prayerbooks and 
promising financial help. The people in those vil- 
lages were mostly poor and such aid was welcome. 
Money being involved, the rumor of these visits 
soon spread among the population of nearby dis- 
tricts. All of a sudden the population of whole 
districts began to renounce allegiance to their old 
churches and priests. The church authorities, blam- 
ing the inefficiency of their priests, replaced them 
by others. The substitutes were threatened in their 



158 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

safety, some of them expelled from the respective 
villages. Thereupon the clergy had to apply for the 
assistance of the state authorities. Investigations 
which followed gradually disclosed the whole ex- 
tent of the underground work of the Russian mole. 
In this connection two facts are noteworthy : One 
is that under the Acts IX and XLII, of the years 
1868 and 1895 respectively, the Greek-Oriental 
Church is recognized in the Kingdom of Hungary 
only inasmuch as it pertains to the Roumanian 
and Servian Churches. That is, the Russian Or- 
thodox Church is not recognized. The other extant 
fact is that the Russian propaganda in all of the 
named districts in Hungary (as well as in Galicia 
and Bukovina) has had a double purpose. It was 
both a church propaganda and a political move. 
The former was and is directed against the Roman 
Catholic Church. The Holy Synod of Russia never 
could forgive Rome the loss of a large number of 
their former church members in the Balkan and 
other countries, due to concessions of the Holy See 
in Rome. The new Greek Catholic converts were 
allowed to retain some of the Byzantinian rites and 
their mother tongue in the usage of the church. 
Their priests were allowed to marry, whereas strict 
celibacy is imposed on Roman Catholic priests. 
This is why Roman Catholics in Russia have always 
met with persecution. This is also one of the very 
reasons why Russia so strongly opposed the occupa- 
tion of Bosnia-Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary. 
Russia was afraid of the Christianization of the 
Orthodox believers in Bosnia and Herzegovina 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 159 

under our regime. Russia reckoned that by keeping 
up her religious propaganda in Galicia, Bukovina 
and Hungary, she would be compensated for the 
losses which her church had suffered in other coun- 
tries. What she really wanted, however, was to 
pave the way to the intended "land grab" by mak- 
ing "spiritual" conquests first. The trials of Iza, 
in 1903, and of Maramarossziget, in 1904 and 1913, 
have brought this to the surface so convincingly as 
to dispel any doubts which may have been formerly 
entertained in this regard. 

As in the case of Galicia and Bukovina, so in 
Hungary's case a considerable part of the Russian 
propaganda against Hungarian Ruthenians was 
carried on by way of America. Here every possible 
means were used and are being used by the Russian 
Church, which is a willing helper of Russian Gov- 
ernment to foment dissatisfaction in the ranks of 
the Hungarian Greek Catholic clergy, and induce- 
ments are offered to win them over to the Orthodox 
Church. Fortunately these endeavors have met 
with scanty success. A considerable number of 
Hungarian Ruthenians have, however, changed 
faith, and these renegades were used as go-betweens 
by the Russians to persuade their friends and rela- 
tives in Hungary to follow suit. Little do the peo- 
ple of the United States know that their country 
thus has unwillingly and unconsciously also sup- 
plemented a few sparks which helped to ignite the 
firebrand of Europe's war. The Russian bear has 
been rampaging here on the wayside, as he does all 
over the rest of the globe. 



VI.— ECONOMIC WAK CONDITIONS IN AUS- 
TRIA-HUNGARY. THE UNITED STATES 
AND THE DUAL MONARCHY. 

The statement attributed to the famous Austrian 
general of former centuries, Count Montecucculi, 
that there are three things necessary to conduct a 
successful war: "money, money, and money," is 
probably less known to the American public, than 
it is to my own countrymen. The same idea has 
since then been expressed repeatedly by many sec- 
retaries of war or of the navy, and other men promi- 
nently connected with the war movement of one 
or the other country. 

Under the highly developed present conditions 
it is not only the actual cash outlay for the main- 
tenance of the army and navy, but the whole na- 
tional wealth and economic strength which have 
to be taken into account by any country that goes 
to war. A country unable to demonstrate finan- 
cial and economic stability, or at least sufficient 
stamina to resist the various forms of attacks which 
are directed against the possessions, property and 
the whole national wealth of the population while 
war and fighting are going on is, ab initio, hopelessly 
beaten by the adversaries who may be in a better 
position in this respect than itself. 

Is Austria-Hungary's financial and economic 
160 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 161 

strength sound enough to enable her to conduct 
this war without fear of a financial collapse? 

I would like to quote here the comments of Dr. 
Rudolph Sieghart, President of the Austrian Credit 
Foncier (Bodenkreditanstalt) which is probably 
the strongest financial institute in the monarchy 
today. Dr. Sieghart was formerly the Austrian 
State Minister of the Treasury and is a Privy 
Councillor of his Imperial and Royal Apostolic 
Majesty. His word should therefore carry double 
or even treble weight, to wit: as the word of a 
leading banker in Austria-Hungary, of the former 
first official state expert in matters concerning the 
finances of Austria, and indirectly concerning those 
of the whole monarchy, and of an adviser of the 
Emperor and King. 

"The question"— so he says— "whether the people 
can look with confidence upon the economic fitness 
of the country to conduct this war, must be un- 
reservedly answered in the affirmative. Austria- 
Hungary's national wealth is prepared to meet all 
and every vicissitude that this war may bring. 
What was weak and unstable has fallen off long 
since the repeated crises connected with the Balkan 
wars. What was left is the powerful stock, and 
this stock is healthy and able to weather storms. 
Anxieties concerning real estate and other values 
entrusted to the State administration, the lawful 
trustees of the people, are utterly absurd and sin- 
ful." Dr. Sieghart then continues to state that ac- 
cording to the experiences of the past, periods of 



162 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

economic advances usually follow periods of war, as 
was shown particularly after the German-French 
war, after the war in South Africa, and after the 
Balkan wars. Modern economic conditions con- 
tain a wonderful capacity of recovery. To this 
capacity it can be ascribed that the wounds inflicted 
by a war on the whole economic system quickly 
heal. Dr. Sieghart, in this respect, entirely dis- 
agrees with some pessimists who foresee long 
periods of financial depression for all countries in- 
volved in a war. "Above all" — so he continues — 
"must it not be forgotten that our war with Servia 
is also an economic war. The unending alarms and 
the undermining tendencies of this Pan-Servian 
propaganda were a great drain on our economic 
conditions." 

Dr. Sieghart, moreover, declares that Austro- 
Hungarian currency or State bonds* have nothing to 
fear on account of the war. Austro-Hungarian cur- 
rency is established on as solid a foundation as that 
of any other large country in Europe or elsewhere. 
State annuities at the present exchange rates would 
bear 5 per cent., which indicates an unusually high 
rentability, all the more as>nobody thinks at present 
of converting our State loans. Anybody who would 
sell these State bonds at a time such as this would 
cut into his own flesh, as he must lose on this deal. 
To withdraw deposits from savings banks, or banks, 
would be even more short-sighted, as- the with- 
drawer loses interest and* causes damage to the gen- 
eral community. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 163 

With reference to Austro-Hungarian currency it 
can be stated that both the organization of the 
Austro-Hungarian Banks, in 1878, and the adoption 
of a gold standard in 1892, have greatly contributed 
to place our currency system and our general finan- 
ces on a very sound basis. The currency reform is 
chiefly due to Dr. Alexander Wekerle, former Hun- 
garian Premier, who is one, if not the foremost of 
financial geniuses whom Austro-Hungary has ever 
produced. The banks' gold was secured from abroad 
through "gold loans." Forty-nine percent of all 
banknotes in circulation must be covered by the 
gold reserve of the Austro-Hungarian banks. The 
banknotes are exchanged in gold by the bank on 
demand. The gold reserves of the Austro-Hunga- 
rian bank have always been very high. On the aver- 
age they are higher than those of the Bank of Eng- 
land. The Austro-Hungarian Bank, through its 
very large number of agencies scattered all over 
Austria-Hungary, has always well taken care of 
the needs of the business firms in the whole dual 
monarchy. Complaints were seldom heard, except 
that Hungary at times demanded a more evenly 
balanced division of control between Austria and 
Hungary. Conditions now, however, are very satis- 
factory in this, and in fact, all other respects. The 
present governor of the bank, Dr. von Popovics, 
was formerly Dr. Wekerle's right-hand aid in the 
State Treasury Department. 

At the time when I write these lines,* official 



* From home reports it appears that over three billion crowns were under- 
written since then. 



164 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

wireless messages have reached us to the effect that 
although Austria-Hungary's war loan was not yet 
officially opened to the general public, over one bil- 
lion crowns were almost instantly underwritten. 
This is certainly a splendid demonstration of fit- 
ness, and the alarmists of the hostile camps, who 
had in the early days of the war predicted both a 
national and financial collapse of Austria-Hungary, 
will certainly go away disappointed and mind their 
own business in the future. 

WHAT WERE THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE WAR IN 
THE FIRST MONTHS? 

Because of the suddeness of the outbreak of this 
world war, business had to face the hard task in 
the beginning of accommodating itself to the newly 
created situation. We will see hereafter in what 
way government in Austria-Hungary was able to 
assist business in its unexpected predicament. 

In the early beginnings of the war, means and 
ways had to be found by business to readjust con- 
ditions which were apt to arise owing to the sudden 
withdrawal of about two million of men from the 
field of labor. As was, however, to be expected, the 
men who left for the battlefields could be almost 
instantly replaced by the men and women whom 
they left behind, and by other hitherto unemployed 
elements. This latter element may perhaps be taxed 
as shifty in normal times, but necessity, if nothing 
else, would transform it into a useful pillar of so- 
ciety under the changed environments of life. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 165 

Those men who handle business in Austria-Hun- 
gary instantly realized that two great dangers must 
be swiftly and deftly eliminated, if anything like an 
economic equilibrium should be maintained: the 
shutting down of factories, which would cause stag- 
nation, and the increased number of unemployed. 
They set out firmly on their task and as far as 
reliable information shows, they have to a great ex- 
tent been successful in solving this problem. They 
had one strong ally to foot their bills of additional 
expense, namely, the last extraordinarily abundant 
crops in the whole area of the monarchy. This was 
one of the best years for our farmers. They were 
not even handicapped by a shortage of farm hands to 
gather in crops, while we read in reports that gov- 
ernment in France had to issue orders to the women 
in France to go out to the fields to collect the crops. 
Austria-Hungary was undoubtedly in a luckier 
position than her present enemy. 

Mobilization in our country was carried out very 
successfully. Regiment cadres were filled easily 
and nearly a million men volunteered for military 
service up to date who would, under our military 
rules, not be liable to war service. This favorable 
result enabled our war office to give permission to a 
comparatively large number of men who had been 
called into the ranks to return to the temporary har- 
vest work in the fields. This I can verify from my 
own experience during my recent sojourn in Aus- 
tria-Hungary, as on the estate which my family 
owns in Central Hungary we were allowed to retain 



166 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

temporarily a sufficient number of field laborers for 
the necessary harvesting. As the crops could be 
sold very well and generally brought good prices, it 
was possible to start with the sowing of the winter 
seeds and no complications are to be expected in 
this connection. Agricultural products, cattle, 
poultry, butter, eggs, etc., all sold well. 

Sound agricultural conditions are the founda- 
tions of the economic stability of every country. 
These conditions mean that the larder can be kept 
well supplied and that the dreaded phantom of 
famine is merely a myth and a fabrication of our 
illwishers. 

The daily press during the last months brought 
repeated reports concerning alleged famine threat- 
ening the people of Austria-Hungary, especially 
in large cities. These reports, however, can be dis- 
proved in a most authoritative way, and I take 
occasion further on to demonstrate that these re- 
ports lack any serious foundation. 

As regards the effect of war on factories we must 
distinguish between factories and other industrial 
concerns which benefit from the large orders placed 
with them by the Government and such as do not. 
That the Skoda factory in Pilsen, Bohemia, pros- 
pers, having supplied some of the large guns which 
have battered the fortresses of Belgium and France, 
need not be emphasized. But the same is also true 
of all the factories which supply arms, ammunition 
and gunpowder and all sinews of warfare to the 
army, and it is true also of the Stabilimento Tech- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 167 

nico in Triest, the Danubius shipping yard in 
Fiume and the Whitehead Torpedo factory near 
Fiume, etc., which execute orders for the navy. All 
these concerns probably work overtime. The fac- 
tories manufacturing clothing and wearing apparel 
for the troops are kept constantly busy. So are 
linen and underwear factories, factories turning out 
the winter outfit for the soldiers, tanneries, shoe fac- 
tories and box factories whose output makes an 
easy and safe transportation of all requirements of 
the army to the seat of war possible. Factories pro- 
viding tin goods and food-stuffs of any kind cannot 
complain of lack of business. 

As to the second category of factories and indus- 
trial concerns it can be stated on reliable informa- 
tion from our country that coal mines are working 
70 or 80 per cent, of their regular output. There is 
no scarcity of coal noticeable. Iron industry main- 
tains about 75 per cent, of its usual business. Gov- 
ernment has placed with these factories large orders 
of rails and other necessities for the State Railways. 

We admit of course that Germany in this respect 
is in a more favorable condition than we are. In 
Prussia, for instance, an investment credit of 1,000 
million marks was voted to assist German iron 
industry. 

Cotton mills reduced their business by about 40 
per cent., but cotton mills in every country in 
Europe (including those in England) have likewise 
been compelled to reduce their business. Sugar and 
paper industries had to store part of their products. 



168 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

They are, however, by no means crippled as some 
people would like to make us believe. 

There is one branch of industries which is, it is 
conceded, more or less at a standstill. To this be- 
long all factories turning out sumptuary articles, 
which in these warlike times command a limited 
market only; factories manufacturing fancy ar- 
ticles, glass and porcelain ware, enamel, etc. These 
industries, however, have always been in the hands 
of wealthy concerns, amply provided with capital 
and well able to be good losers. There was any- 
way some depression in these branches of industry 
necessitating certain reductions of work and war 
has not hit them at a time when big business cam- 
paigns had been launched. 

On the whole, every factory owner is using his 
best efforts to keep his business running. I deem it 
appropriate to mention that the well-known patriot- 
ism of our business men and loyalty to their coun- 
try's cause is also a strong incentive to stimulate in- 
dividual efforts of this kind. Thus employees are 
not threatened with sudden "layoffs" and, it is 
surely fair to state, based on sound information, 
that the number of unemployed during the war in 
our country, particularly in larger industrial cen- 
tres, is both absolutely and relatively much smaller 
than in France and England. 

To keep smaller business supplied with credit, 
"war credit banks" were started both in Austria 
and Hungary. I will discuss them later, and would 
like to emphasize here merely, as a general com- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 169 

ment, that whether in times of peace or war, as long 
as means can be created to prevent the stoppage of 
credit sources, no serious business calamity need 
be feared. 

There is another reason which contributed to 
some extent to the depression of the business of the 
last named factories (glassware, porcelain, enamel, 
etc. ) , and this is that this business is to a large de- 
gree export business. Austrian cut glass, Hun- 
garian enamel, are known all over the world, al- 
though the labels "made in Austria" or "made in 
Hungary" are often replaced by labels "made in 
England" or "in France," or "home-made," etc. 

The trans-oceanic export trade is suspended. 
There is no shipping possible from and to Austro- 
Hungarian ports. Railway traffic to neutral coun- 
tries (Switzerland, Italy, Holland, Roumania, Bul- 
garia, etc.) is possible, but under conditions rend- 
ered more difficult on account of the movements of 
the troops which naturally monopolize the railways 
in times of war. Railway transportation is also of 
course more expensive than transportation on ships. 

But when this is said, almost everything is said 
where the balance is perhaps to some extent a little 
unfavorable to Austria-Hungary. We must not for- 
get that the interruption of European export trade 
is by no means limited to Austria-Hungary or to 
Germany. England's export and import traffic with 
the European continent has doubtless greatly suf- 
fered. According to Rotterdam reports from the 
end of September the British Board of Trade has 



170 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

suspended bulletins concerning British imports and 
exports. The last bulletin issued on the 15th of 
September showed a decrease of 16.2 million pounds 
sterling, nearly 80 million dollars in the imports 
and a decrease of 26.4 million pounds sterling, near- 
ly 130 million dollars in the exports. These de- 
creases refer to the corresponding periods of last 
year. I am not familiar with the particulars of this 
depression of export and import trade in Great 
Britain beyond these above facts and I do not at- 
tempt therefore, to draw any comparison or con- 
clusions. 

In a general way we can say that Europe's and 
the world's foreign trade is by this war probably 
damaged to the extent of about twelve billion dol- 
lars. Germany, Belgium, Austria-Hungary, Rus- 
sia, France, are the largest consumers of British 
products, and these countries are practically ex- 
cluded from the regular channels of their foreign 
trade. British India, China and Japan are prob- 
ably very greatly hampered. Australia can send no 
wool or meat to the European continent, British In- 
dia no cotton, no jute, no rice. Neither can China 
export her rice, nor her silk or tea to her usual cus- 
tomers of long years' standing. Brazil's coffee and 
cocoa export trade must be greatly impaired and so 
must Chile's export of nitrate potassium. To what 
extent the grain export from the United States is 
handicapped, I am not now in a position to state, 
but it certainly is impaired too, and so is Ameri- 
can cotton export. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 171 

There is another aspect to this general gloomy 
picture. Investments made abroad by European 
countries in war are threatened. So are goods 
stored abroad in warehouses. Outstanding claims 
cannot be easily settled. But all this is equally true 
for every country. Shipping companies in neutral 
countries, as for instance in Italy, Holland, decline 
to carry risks and thus transportation through their 
medium becomes a very risky game. 

Trans-oceanic exchanges have dropped consider- 
ably. In Brazil it is claimed, for instance, by about 
25 per cent. A natural consequence of this drop is 
a depreciation of the goods in store held by trans- 
oceanic import firms. That hits these import firms 
and they are prevented from granting the usual 
facilities of payment to the European exporters. 
Because of the loss in exchange European bills of 
exchange are too expensive to buy. All combina- 
tions as to the bought merchandise are thus thrown 
completely overboard as this merchandise eventu- 
ally proves much more expensive than reckoned in 
the beginning. What is the next result? The Euro- 
pean exporter cannot expect payments from his 
customers. The importer across the sea of course 
pays interest, but never more than 6 per cent., 
whereas the exporter in Europe must pay about 
7 1-2 per cent. There are many other items which 
enter into consideration, expenses for travelling 
salesmen, clerks, rent, taxes, etc. These are some 
of the drawbacks under which our export trade now 
labors. Fortunately, however, in this respect, trans- 
oceanic export trade from Austria-Hungary has 



172 AUSTKIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

never yet been very extensive in the past. We have 
always complained of the lack of interest shown by 
our business men in export trade. These remarks I 
make especially with reference to countries such as 
Great Britain, which country stands and falls on 
her export trade. 

If we summarize what has been said concerning 
general conditions of agriculture, industries and 
trade, it can be confidently stated, that Austria- 
Hungary has stood the test very well. Her strength 
of resistance has not been impaired. She has natu- 
rally suffered, but not anyway near the extent pre- 
dicted by hostile wiseacres and far less than feared 
by her sympathizers. 

As malicious reports had been circulated in the 
foreign press of some countries, whereby sanitary 
conditions and the credit of Austria-Hungary was 
attacked, the City of Vienna resolved to issue regu- 
lar weekly bulletins. 

These bulletins concern all questions of public 
interest in the City of Vienna and in the monarchy. 

From the first two bulletins issued on October 
13th and October 27th respectively the following 
data can be gathered : 

During the months of August and September of 
the two respective years, 1913 and 1914, the City of 
Vienna employment agency has carried on the fol- 
lowing business : 

Numbers of cases. 
1913 1914 

Received offers of employment 54872 50492 

Received applications for work 64244 60150 

Has procured employment ,..,.. 42053 48276 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 173 

This shows that the city has secured employment 
to 6,223 more persons during the respective months 
of this year than last year. Public works and bids 
for public contracts were kept on regularly and the 
total result was better than in the corresponding 
period of last year. 

In Vienna over 80,000 families of the men gone to 
the battlefields received about 7 million crowns a 
month as an aid by Government. The bulletin men- 
tions here as an interesting item that, since the be- 
ginning of war, pawned goods valued at 1,600,000 
crowns were withdrawn from the pawnshops under 
State control. Only people with savings or surplus 
money would withdraw their watch or household 
effects from the pawnshop. 

Safety deposits decreased during a very short 
period after mobilization orders had been issued, but 
later on increased very considerably. So, for in- 
stance, the Central Savings Bank of the City of 
Vienna alone had 17 million crowns more on the 
10th of October than on the same day of last year, 
The total amount of savings in the Vienna savings 
banks was by 38 million crowns higher at the fall 
of September, 1914, than at the corresponding date 
last year. 

Provisions and foodstuffs in Vienna are entirely 
sufficient. Milk, vegetables, eggs, fruit and pota- 
toes are pouring in from the close environments of 
the city. 

The following quantities are registered in the 
bulletin as imported during the week from 11-17, 
October, 1914: 



174 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

in 1913 in 1914 

of vegetables 21828 hundredweights 23496 hundredweights 
potatoes 16115 15297 

fruit 19257 13991 

eggs 398790 piece 499443 piece 

The tremendous increase in the number of eggs is 
certainly noticeable. 

Retail prices have during the same corresponding 
week varied only very slightly : 

1913 1914 

Crowns Crowns 

Beef 1.60—2.60 1.80—2.60 

Pork 1.60—3. 1.60—3. 

Lard 1.84—2.20 1.80—2.10 

Bacon 1.74—2.08 1.60—2. 

Table butter 3.40—4.24 3.40—4.20 

Cooking butter 2.40—3.20 2.40—3.20 

Cream pro liter 0.26—0.32 0.26—0.32 

Milk 0.20-O.26 0.20—0.24 

Eggs pro piece 0.09—0.10 0.10—0.16 

Potatoes pro kilogramm 0.10—0.14 0.10—0.14 

Flour (wheat) 0.36—0.44 0.60—0.64 

Bread (wheat) 0.28—0.408 0.35— 0.476 

Bread (rye) 0.26—0.398 0.32—0.444 

Rice 0.40—0.96 0.48—0.88 

Sauerkraut 0.24—0.28 0.24—0.28 

Beans 0.40—0.70 0.54—0.76 

As can be seen prices have hardly changed since 
last year. In some articles (bacon, lard, milk, table 
butter) they have dropped. Flour and bread have 
risen a little. Large grain and flour supplies are 
still kept back in an attempt to corner the market, 
but Government has already taken energetic meas- 
ures to make "breadusury" entirely impossible. 

Reports of the Vienna City tax office clearly illus- 
trate that economic conditions are very favorable. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 175 



According to these reports the paid-in taxes for 
the State amounted to : 



.3Sg8S3 






CD TtH 
© 



CJ CO 

© rjn 

CO © 

<N CO 



lis 



rt t-I CO 



S3 



M 



© 



© © <n" CO 00 

© 00 TJ4 © K5 



H lO © t> 

© 



© co 

CO © 

© CO 

00 r-\ 

00 CO 

00 H 

© ' 



3 



00 b- 

© 00 

8% 



© 

© 

r-5 C$ 



CI 



CD W 



gS^ 



8tJ4 QC 
t- rH 






CO © 



00 © 

00 

od ci 
to t- 
© t- 

fc- CO 



(M CO W rH lO 

CO lO lO lO CD 

co cd c4 -^ t^ 

rH © rH © t^ 

H N CO ^ N 

(M # ©* iO irf ^ 

00 "<* H 00 



a; 


rH 


CO 
rH 


CI 


CO 

CO 


id 


CO 

rH 
00 


00 

§3 




© 


© 


\6 

M 


00 


t 


© 


ri 










© <N 

tj5 co 



9 



TJ4 j-( 

10 



a 






3 



1 1 * * a -a 

to -s a ^ -m s * 

s g o Sa,2S 

T3 t3 O >— " O V H 

a 5 a o3 m « s 

5 «3 £ as 04 Q S 






i 



72 

a 
o 

If 

to is 
a 
o 



• 05 

,22 -3 

o o 

2 ^ 

02 ,__, 



C3 



g a 

& .2 

a 5 
a .§ 

O TJ 

« is 

a 
o 
Q 



a 
a o 

O *H 



a U 
o 



176 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

Whereas therefore in August — in the confusion 
of the first war weeks — the paid-in taxes were 2.6 
million crowns less than in the previous year, the 
paid-in taxes in September were 5.8 million crowns 
higher and the total of these months 3.2 million 
crowns higher than in the corresponding period of 
the preceding year. 

To aid the increased credit demands of business 
people Government organized a War Loan Society 
governed by the Austro-Hungarian Bank with the 
co-operation of State delegates. This society is au- 
thorized to issue bank notes amounting to 500 mil- 
lion crowns secured by mortgages on bonds, mer- 
chandise or other appropriate values. 

Upon suggestion of the Chamber of Commerce 
and Industry of Vienna a War Creditbank was also 
established. This Creditbank allows discounts and 
credits on drafts (or promissory notes). It will 
particularly help smaller concerns with no regular 
bank connections. The capital stock amounting to 
6 million crowns was subscribed partly by Vienna 
banks, partly by merchants and manufacturers. 
The Community of Vienna and the Chamber of Com- 
merce and Industry assumed a guarantee amount- 
ing to two million crowns each. 

For loans to even smaller tradespeople the Cham- 
ber of Commerce and Industry has set aside a fund 
amounting to 400,000 crowns. For the same pur- 
pose the Community of Vienna permitted the City 
Central Savings Bank to apply an extra credit of 
one million crowns. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 177 

Women and girls without means of support can 
get work in the numerous sewing and knitting shops 
arranged by the Ladies' Aid of the City Hall, where 
mostly clothing and underwear for the soldiers is 
manufactured. 

To assist clerks and commercial employees a spe- 
cial committee was organized, consisting of dele- 
gates of the State and community, which raises 
funds partly from the employees and employers and 
partly by securing subventions. Of the Jewish 
refugees fleeing from Eastern Galicia and Buko- 
vina to Vienna a special committee takes care suffi- 
ciently. Press accounts that these refugees had to 
beg for bread are therefore not true. 

Of supplies there is ample provision. 

In the city slaughter house and stockyards at St. 

Marx, Vienna, were killed : 

From October 12-18 From October 11-17 

1913 1914 

Cattle 4308 7462 

Calves 5144 5000 

Lambs 96 101 

Sheep 1593 2408 

Hogs 21728 15981 

As regards sanitary conditions — so the bulletin 
reports — Vienna's excellent water supply and 
plumbing system are good safeguards against epi- 
demics. Mortality of the population is by 13.7 pro 
mille more favorable than last year. Not a single 
case of cholera occurred in Vienna. 

Schools are going on as usual. Theaters are 
also kept open. Anybody who reads these bulle- 



178 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

tins must admit that war conditions in Vienna are 
certainly anything but unsatisfactory. 

War credit banks such as the one mentioned 
above are also established in Hungary and Bohemia. 
General conditions in Budapest, Prague and other 
large cities are equally favorable, although no 
specified particulars were as yet available at the 
time when this book was written. 

A point of interest is the fact that since July 25th 
all exchange quotations stopped. This date there- 
fore becomes the legal date in connection with pay- 
ments to be effected. This date has for instance 
bearings on the administration of estates. If a man 
died on October or November the 15th the value of 
his shares, bonds is fixed according to the last quo- 
tations of July 25th ; the value of his estate may be 
therefore overtaxed or underestimated. 

HOW DOES GOVERNMENT AID BUSINESS? 

We have already seen two ways of Government 
aid: 

1. Permission of war office that field laborers 
could temporarily leave their ranks and go back to 
gather in the crops. 

2. Help in organizing war credit banks and war 
loan societies. 

The law LXIII of the year 1912 in Hungary au- 
thorized Government to issue various ordinances for 
the welfare of business and public during war times. 
Thus a moratorium was declared to enable the busi- 
ness world in general and the smaller people in par- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 179 

ticular to prepare for ways how to meet their liabili- 
ties in times of war. Incidentally it also prevents 
runs on banks or savings banks. 

"Runs" on banks as need hardly be emphasized, 
are often made in the midst of peace. When in 1910 
a "run" was made on the Society for Savings Bank, 
Cleveland's strongest financial institution, in the 
course of which, according to President Myron T. 
Herrick, about two million dollars were withdrawn 
within a few days, there was absolutely no reason 
why this run should have started. It was started by 
an irresponsible person. Calm was quickly restored 
and the money thus withdrawn was redeposited 
with considerable additional deposits. 

It stands to reason that if such a run can be or- 
ganized in times of peace, on a first-class and 
wealthy banking institution, it can all the more be 
arranged in times of war when people are generally 
suspicious and afraid. The issuance of a morato- 
rium does by no means indicate disorganized or even 
weak market conditions. It is simply a surplusage 
of government caution to prevent the hoarding away 
of funds which serves nobody's interest. Of course, 
if a moratorium is found not necessary, as was the 
case in Germany, this is undoubtedly a sign that the 
population has an exceptionally keen sense of re- 
sponsibility for the duties of the individual towards 
the whole public and government. Moratoriums 
were for instance declared in Great Britain, France, 
Russia, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Norway, Rou- 
mania, Sweden, Luxemburg, Egypt, Brazil, etc. 



180 AUSTRIA -HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

To illustrate the working of a moratorium or- 
dinance I will briefly discuss the Hungarian mora- 
torium based on the law LXIII of 1912. This mora- 
torium or government permission to temporarily 
postpone payments concerns all payments based on 
bills of exchange, commercial papers, drafts, pub- 
lic warehouse notes, checks and all commercial 
transactions originating prior to August 1, 1914. 
Interest can be allowed, if the law otherwise allows 
the charge of interest. The moratorium also in- 
cludes the delay in payment of patent fees which 
should be of great interest to American holders of 
patent rights in Hungary (also in Austria). 

Not included in this benefit are the payments on 
account of interest, annuities and partial amortiza- 
tion of all payments to be made by Government or 
guaranteed by Government, payments on account of 
interest on bonds and obligations in use for trust 
funds of minors (these funds as will be known en- 
joy the particular protection of Government in both 
Austria and Hungary) ; interest or amortization 
bonds, fees or taxes to be paid for the use of public 
waterworks and light; payments which go to the 
Red Cross fund and funds for the families of sol- 
diers in the war ; annuities and alimony payments ; 
war risk insurance, if the insurance was made for 
that purpose or if against payment of a special 
premium additional insurance risk on account of 
war was accepted ; all ordinary life insurance up to 
500 crowns must be paid in full ; fire, ice (hail) and 
animal insurance must be paid in full; other in- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 181 

surance against damage only up to 400 crowns ; rent, 
except if the lessee is a soldier (viz., in the army) ; 
debts resulting from farm-leases; wages to agricul- 
tural, industrial employees, and all other wages 
arising from a contract between master and ser- 
vant; fees to lawyers and doctors, engineers, au- 
thors, artists, commission agents, inasmuch as these 
arise from antewar transactions up to 25 per cent, 
of the amount ; sub-contractors' claims against con- 
tractors ; payments of funds resulting from the ad- 
ministration of foreign property; claims of insur- 
ance agents against insurance companies and a few 
other minor instances. As regards mutual con- 
tracts signed before August 1st, one party can claim 
execution of contract from the other side only, if he 
has also carried out his part of the contract. 

It certainly can be considered as a sign of healthy 
business conditions that we were in a position to 
begin earlier than other countries with the succes- 
sive suspension of this moratorium by decreeing 
partial payments. Since the 15th of October 25 per 
cent, of the payments based on promissory notes (or 
drafts) and 10 per cent, of ordinary standing busi- 
ness debts are payable. On November 15th an- 
other 15 per cent, of the latter category of debts be- 
came due. This suspension did not cause any par- 
ticular perturbance. On the first day when the new 
order was in force, some debtors may have been 
caught in surprise, but most of them would settle 
their liabilities on the following days. In many 
cases the whole debt was paid at once. Cash pay- 



182 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

ments were very brisk in many parts of Hungary, 
Bohemia, Moravia and Bosnia, where the popula- 
tion had good crops and good profits through Gov- 
ernment outlays. 

SOME REMARKS ON THE GENERAL POSITION OF 

PRIVATE PROPERTY IN WAR AND VEXATIOUS 

WAR MEASURES. 

With the war going on relentlessly we are grow- 
ing more callous to the more or less colored reports 
concerning mutual atrocities committed by the vari- 
ous armies. If we want to be impartial we must 
say that no army is entirely blameless in this re- 
spect, although our present allied enemies attempt 
through a livelier press campaign to demonstrate 
that the Germans and we are the more guilty party 
than they. 

There is, however, one particular line of cruelty 
with which Germany and Austrian reports have in 
recent days repeatedly charged England and 
France, that is with their pronounced disregard of 
property rights of individuals or corporations dur- 
ing the war. Aside from the increasing number of 
seizures of private property on neutral ships which 
does not form contraband of war, the arbitrary seiz- 
ure and confiscation of private bank deposits and 
bank balances of individuals must be considered an 
altogether flagrant breach of every principle of in- 
ternational law and international propriety. So 
for instance British Government ordered, almost 
at once after the beginning of war, that German or 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 183 

Austro-Hungarian bank establishments in English 
cities be either entirely closed or go into voluntary 
liquidation, Government confiscating their avail- 
able cash funds. In such a way the Austrian Laen- 
derbank and the Anglo-Austrian Bank in London 
were practically ordered to go into liquidation 
and were placed in the hands of Government trus- 
tees. These were some of the terms of liquidation : 
The activity of the bank must be exclusively re- 
stricted to transactions begun before August the 
5th (British declaration of war). They cannot 
make other transactions. This order meant to safe- 
guard the settlement of the claims of British credi- 
tors and was issued to make all further legitimate 
business impossible for these banks. British trus- 
tees were moreover to superintend all payments 
effected by the banks, and to see that none be made 
whereby, for instance, the Austrian stockholders 
might profit. All surplus resulting after the liqui- 
dation of all outstanding claims should be paid into 
the treasury of the Bank of England. This arbi- 
trary procedure will deliberately damage finan- 
cial interests and private property of individuals 
and is without parallel in the history of the civi- 
lized world. 

In France, soon after the outbreak of the war, an 
ordinance was issued that all goods in custom 
houses belonging to Austrians, Hungarians or Ger- 
mans should be sold at auction and proceeds should 
go to the Government of France. This practically 
means confiscation of private property! Later on it 



184 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

was stated that Austrian, Hungarian or German 
property was placed under State control. No sale 
of such, property should take placa No security 
however exists that this is carried out and in view of 
the first ordinance it is indeed doubtful that this 
is really being carried out. 

Neither in Austria-Hungary, nor in Germany 
have similar ways been adopted. Not even the cars 
of the International Sleeping Car Company and 
those of the Compagnie Auxiliaire were confiscated 
in Austria-Hungary, although there would be great 
need for them. On the contrary, have both the 
Austrian and Hungarian Governments made agree- 
ments with these companies to be allowed to take 
possession of the sleeping cars for Red Cross pur- 
poses against a stipulated price. 

Of course Germany and Austria-Hungary may be 
led to adopt retaliatory measures, if England and 
France will persist in similar methods of attacking 
private property. 

England expects her business firms to stop all 
business with firms which have German or Aus- 
trian or Hungarian partners in trade. English 
firms should not remit credit balances to Austrian 
or Hungarian or German private individuals or 
firms, because that would be unpatriotic. Faith 
and honesty are the two chief factors in commerce. 
English business men were long known all over the 
world as ideal business men to deal with. Larger 
firms in England may possibly not strictly observe 
this rule set forth by their Government. There are 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 185 

grounds, however, to assume that the younger firms 
in the colonies and at home will avail themselves 
to dodge their obligations. The question is whether 
such a shortsighted policy does not in course of time 
bring more harm than profit. England, as I stated 
above, is eminently the country of export and her 
foreign trade is all-important to her. Austria- 
Hungary and Germany have always been England's 
best customers for her Birmingham and Manchester 
goods, her Bradford woolenware. Moreover, Eng- 
land has enjoyed the reputation of being called the 
banker of the world. This reputation netted her 
huge profits. The whole cotton rembours and the 
foreign exchange business netted her billions of dol- 
lars. England thinks that the war secured her the 
golden opportunity to ruin Germany's and Aus- 
tria-Hungary's foreign trade forever. That this 
will prove a miscalculation the future will no doubt 
demonstrate. 

In the meantime England's and France's war 
measures have forced Austria-Hungary to adopt or 
to contemplate the adoption of retaliatory methods. 
In Austria-Hungary, as was partly above indicated, 
the enemy's private property was not destroyed, nor 
confiscated. English and French business firms can 
still carry on their business. This, however, is now 
put under the control of the State to the extent that 
no money should go abroad to the enemy, if such 
money was acquired in Austria-Hungary in the 
course of business with our own people and paid by 
them. Should such money go to the enemy it might* 



186 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

be used against the monarchy and that must be pre- 
vented. As will be seen, this is a very different 
measure from confiscation or sale of private prop- 
erty as ordered in France or from the interdiction 
in England to banking institutions to negotiate 
business transactions at all. 

In this respect it is further made a duty to every- 
body in Hungary to declare debts which are owed 
to subjects or inhabitants of the countries of the 
enemy. Municipalities, public corporations, so- 
cieties, associations, private firms and all individ- 
uals residing in Hungary are required to make such 
declarations. The Secretaries of Trade and Treas- 
ury can forbid the payment of such debts to the 
enemy or stipulate conditions that these payments 
thus due be deposited with savings banks or the 
Austro-Hungarian Bank. Contraventions of these 
ordinances may be fined, with heavy fines going as 
high as 50,000 crowns. In Austria similar ordin- 
ances were issued with reference to English and 
French creditors. 

As regards the payments of interest on Govern- 
ment bonds, these payments cannot be made to sub- 
jects of countries with which Austria-Hungary is in 
war. In practice this interdiction is, however, not 
carried out to the letter. When interest became due 
on the Austrian gold bonds on October 1st, for in- 
stance, payments were made to all bondholders and 
no questions were asked. It is, however, not im- 
possible, if vexatious British or French war meas- 
ures against private property continue, that for in- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 187 

stance consular affidavits may be demanded in the 
neutral countries, where these payments on account 
of interest on Government bonds are effected to 
show that the bondholder is no British or French 
subject. 

It will be noted also that a considerable number 
of English and French banks and firms have claims 
outstanding in Austria-Hungary. These claims 
arise from loans and ordinary business transactions 
and they are much higher than the Austro-Hunga- 
rian claims outstanding in France or in England. 
Should England and France simply cancel these 
claims, then these countries would make a very bad 
bargain, because if Austria-Hungary should adopt 
similar retaliatory measures, they would be heavy 
losers. Even so, these British and French claims 
will be held as securities that all damage done to 
Austrian or Hungarian private property in France 
or England be properly indemnified. 

It is very doubtful that England will be able to re- 
tain her privileged ante-war position as the banker 
and broker of all foreign world-trade after the 
war. Of course, if she should gain a decisive victory 
over Germany and Austria-Hungary she would be 
able to dictate conditions to the whole of Europe. 
But this is a matter of very remote possibility and 
it is much more likely that Germany and Austria- 
Hungary will be the final winners, although per- 
haps their victory may not be of a decisive nature. 
But assuming that England would have a slight 
gain in the end, there is no reason to believe that 



188 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

after peace is re-established, seaports, such as Bre- 
men, Rotterdam or Genoa, will further submit to 
the monopolization of the cotton brokerage or the 
Brazil coffee brokerage by Liverpool or London. 
There is no reason to assume that Berlin or 
Hamburg or Rotterdam bills of exchange will 
not replace the London exchange in the world 
market. 

One effect this war ^ r " undoubtedly have which 
can be predicted with sufficient assurance is, that 
England will lose her German and Austro-Hun- 
garian customers to a very large degree and that 
this trade will shift to other countries, preferably 
to the United States. 

In making this statement I am not led by any 
kind of illwish or spite. These sentiments are of 
course entirely strange to me. I am viewing the 
whole situation with great reserve and calmness 
and my interest is that which I have always given 
to matters of international law or international 
character. My statement should be merely inter- 
preted as a summary gathered from all the symp- 
toms available at this time in my country. That 
this summary is more definite in form is due en- 
tirely to the continuous vexations to which peace- 
ful Austrians or Hungarians have been exposed in 
England and in the British Colonies (in Canada 
for instance), who were not in any way connected 
with our army or navy. These vexations have 
naturally caused resentment and are regrettable 
from every point of view. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 189 

SOME COMMENTS ON AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 'S EXPORTS AND 
IMPORTS. RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES. 

The statistics availan> A ^ l,h the value of merchan- 
dise exported and imported from and to Austria- 
Hungary during the years 1912 and 1913 into and 
from the countries with which the dual monarchy is 
in war show that the value of this whole foreign 
trade amounted to about $165,000,000. Of this 
amount the share of the various countries was as 
follows : 

1. Great Britain : 

Total imports from Austria- 
Hungary for 1913 $7,709,000.00 

Exports , 4,482,000.00 

Foreign re-exports 1,304,000.00 

Total value of this trade about $65,000,000.00 

2. Russia : 

Total imports from Austria- 
Hungary pro 1913 $17,316,000.00 

Total exports 32,628,000.00 

Total value of this trade about. . . . $50,000,000.00 

3. France : 

Total imports from Austria- 
Hungary in 1913 $20,400,000.00 

Exports about 8,749,000.00 

Total value of this trade about $30,000,000.00 

4. British-India : 

Imports from Austria-Hun- 
gary in 1913 about $17,500,000.00 

(Export figures not available.) 

Total value of this trade $17,500,000.00 

5. Japan : 

Total imports from Austria- 
Hungary in 1912 ( in yen ) 3,240,674.00 

Exports (in yen) 1,322,254.00 

Total value of this trade about $2,250,000.00 

Total value of this foreign trade 

about $164,750,000.00 



190 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

As can be seen from the above, British Indian ex- 
port statistics were not available at the time when 
this tabulation was made. Statistics concerning 
other British colonies are also missing, so are those 
concerning Belgium, Servia and Montenegro. If 
we add the values yielded by the foreign trade of 
Austria-Hungary in these last named countries, we 
may conservatively estimate the total value of Aus- 
tria-Hungary's foreign trade with the countries of 
her present enemies at about $200,000,000. 

The principal articles which entered into this 
trade were the following : 

In the group of exports from Austria-Hungary : 
Artificial flowers and feathers, artificial tools, an- 
timony, automobiles, beer, brushes, buttons, dye 
stuffs and colors, chemicals, drugs, coal and coke, 
coffee, cotton yarn, furniture, fruits (fresh and 
dried ) , glassware, glass beads, hides, iron and steel 
ware (not cast iron), steel bars and rails, tinplate 
manufactures, wire and manufactures of wire, raw 
jute, leather and leather belding (unsewn), linen, 
magnesite, mineral waters, musical instruments, 
seeds and plants, straw and hay, copra, raw silk, 
sugar, tanning materials, tin, wax (including bees- 
wax) and paraffin, wine, wood and bark, unmanu- 
factured wool, combed, spun and twisted wool, 
wool goods. 

In the group of imports to Austria-Hungary: 
Flax and tow, hemp and tow, manufactured goods, 
raw cotton, artificial silk, woolen piece goods, 
casings for automobile tires, celluloid in sheets, 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 191 

malleable iron, axles for railway use, plows, scrap- 
iron, copper-wire, wares of copper, internal com- 
bustion motors, sewing machines, agricultural im- 
plements, parts for industrial machinery, electric 
motors, electric measuring aparatus, metal working 
machinery, including metal working machine tools, 
etc. 

As I stated above one probable tendency of this 
war will be to shift the foreign trade of Austria- 
Hungary and Germany to other countries. We have 
full confidence that this war will strengthen the 
dual monarchy instead of weakening it and one in- 
dication of this rise in strength is already evi- 
denced in the "come together" movement of all vari- 
ous nationalities in the monarchy. Various men of 
importance in history have at various times stated 
that the monarchy of Austria-Hungary is a direct 
necessity for Europe, some going so far as to say 
that were the monarchy not in existence, it would 
have to be remade. 

The regrouping of the Balkan powers now and 
after the war will, of course, be keenly watched by 
all of us. It is of great importance to decide the 
future position of Austria-Hungary, as a world- 
power. We confidently expect, however, that the 
war will bring a vindication of Austria-Hungary's 
policies — and victory. 

Business and foreign trade are rarely connected 
with sentiment. Yet, it could hardly be denied that 
trade relations between Germany and France after 
1870 were for a long time strongly under a spell of 



192 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

sentiment. Great Britain's dominance in the for- 
eign trade has been more or less accepted as a neces- 
sity by the whole of the European Continent. But 
there is no reason why this necesity should be ac- 
cepted in the future. And it is here in the readjust- 
ment of the foreign trade of Continental Europe 
that the United States can and will play an all-im- 
portant part ! 

The mutual relations of the United States and the 
dual-monarchy were at all times the very best. We 
never have had friction of any kind. We may have 
had differences of opinion on the theoretical mean- 
ing of the "most favored nation clause" in our trade 
relations. But these, as I have attempted to show 
in my book on "Consular Treaty Eights and the 
Most Favored Nation Clause," have not prevented 
Austria-Hungary from extending to the United 
States the fullest measure of courtesy in trade po- 
litical matters by granting a most favored nation 
treatment to American imports after 1894. In this 
year the Wilson-Gorman bill in repeal of the Mc- 
Kinley bill established a duty on sugar from Aus- 
tria-Hungary. The dual-monarchy was also not al- 
lowed the benefits of the United States treaties with 
France (1898) Portugal (1899) and Italy (1900). 
Yet, in spite of all, we have continued to maintain 
our liberal attitude to imports arriving from the 
United States. We recognize that the United 
States has never desired to discriminate against 
Austro-Hungarian trade, but that her theory re- 
garding the most favored nation clause is a mat- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 193 

ter of principle with her, based on the traditions of 
her past. These traditions and this principle we 
respect. We believe that they will in no way come 
between us, when our foreign trade relations with 
the United States will be resumed after the war. 

The total imports from Austria-Hungary to the 
United States have gradually increased from $10,- 
067,970 in 1901 to f 19,192,414 in 1913. During the 
same time exports from the United States to the 
dual monarchy have increased from $6,963,299 to 
$23,065,050. The total value of our mutual for- 
eign trade in 1913 amounted therefore to about 
$43,000,000. The total imports from all the coun- 
tries with which our country is in war amount 
roughly speaking to about $80,000,000 to $100,000,- 
000. This amount of trade could easily accrue to 
the United States in addition to her former imports, 
which, as was stated, amounted to $23,065,050 in 
1913. The articles herein comprised, as can be 
seen from the above list, are all or mostly such as 
are produced or manufactured in this country. 

It seems to me that our embassies and mutual 
consular offices could, after the war is over, accom- 
plish no more auspicious task than to see that this 
readjustment and mutual expansion of our foreign 
trade becomes true. I wish to asure the people of 
the great American Commonwealth, that on our 
side no efforts will be spared to arrive at this result. 

Lest it be forgotten, let us say that the United 
States and Austria-Hungary have also had other 
relations to entertain with one another. These 



194 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

relations arose from the remarkable growth of 
immigration from our country to American shores 
during the last twenty-five years. This immigra- 
tion may at times perhaps have somewhat com- 
plicated the home conditions of American labor. 
It will, however, hardly be denied that a very con- 
siderable share of the rapid advance of a number 
of large American industries was due to the in- 
dustrious toil of the laborers from Austria-Hun- 
gary. Solid and honest labor hands ! 

Let me also point out that our immigrants have 
always earnestly endeavored to participate in the 
civic and social welfare work of this country. They 
have, when necessity arose, paid their toll of blood 
to help America and promote American ideals. 

Let me point out to my readers that during their 
own country's Civil War the small number of Hun- 
garian immigrants, consisting in those days of 
scarcely 10,000, contributed a contingent of about 
2,000 to 3,000 men who have fought for the United 
States. Seven of these 2,000 to 3,000 have attained 
the rank of generals. They are General Stahel, who 
commanded an army corps; General Asboth, who 
commanded a division and a .district; General 
Schoepf, commander of a -division and a fort; while 
Generals Knefler, Kozlay, Mundee and Pomucz had 
charge of brigades. 

There were others who have attained high rank 
in the army, displaying thereby not only their 
loyalty and prowess, but also their efficiency. 

The memories of those fallen in the Civil War 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 195 

have linked our people together. Will the present 
war thrust them apart again, or will it promote 
their mutual friendship and esteem? 

I would like to see the United States reach out 
for the other hand from our shores. It is a good 
honest hand, that will hold hers in her grasp and 
the grasp will spell loyalty. 

The End. 



APPENDIX A. 

THE NOTE OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY TO SERVIA.* 

Presented July 23, in Belgrade. 

On March 31st, 1909, the Royal Servian Minister 
to the Court of Vienna made the following state- 
ment, by order of his government : 

"Servia declares that she is not affected in her 
rights by the situation established in Bosnia, and 
that she will, therefore, adapt herself to the de- 
cisions which the Powers are going to arrive at 
in reference to Art, 25 of the Berlin Treaty. By 
following the councils of the Powers, Servia binds 
herself to cease the attitude of protest and re- 
sistance which she has assumed since last Octo- 
ber, relative to the annexation, and she binds her- 
self further to change the direction of her present 
policies towards Austria-Hungary, and, in the 
future, to live with the latter in friendly and 
neighborly relations." 

The history of the last years, and especially the 
painful events of June 28th, have demonstrated the 

* The note of Austria-Hungary and Servia's reply thereto as presented 
here, are a reproduction of the only authorized English translation of the Servian 
White Book, which was reprinted by the Fatherland in New York. It is much 
more complete than the version pr nted by the New York Times, which was 
reprinted by the American Association for international Concilation. 

197 



198 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

existence of a subversive movement in Servia whose 
aim it is to separate certain territories from the 
Austro-Hungarian monarchy. This movement, which 
developed under the eyes of the Servian Govern- 
ment, has found expression subsequently beyond 
the territory of the kingdom, in acts of terrorism, a 
series of assassinations and murders. 

Far from fulfilling the formal obligations con- 
tained in the declaration of March 31st, 1909, the 
Royal Servian Government has done nothing to 
suppress this movement. She suffered the criminal 
doings of the various societies and associations di- 
rected against the monarchy, the unbridled lan- 
guage of the press, the glorification of the origina- 
tors of assassinations, the participation of officers 
and officials in subversive intrigues; she suffered 
the unwholesome propaganda in public education, 
and, lastly, permitted all manifestations which 
would mislead the Servian people into hatred 
of the monarchy and into contempt for its institu- 
tions. 

This culpable tolerance, of which the Royal Ser- 
vian Government made itself guilty, has lasted 
up to the moment in which the events of June 28th 
demonstrated to the entire world its ghastly con- 
sequences. 

It becomes plain from the evidence and confes- 
sions of the criminal authors of the outrage of June 
28th, that the murder at Sarajevo was conceived in 
Belgrade, that the murderers received the arms and 
bombs with which they were equipped from Ser- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 199 

vian officers and officials who belonged to the Na- 
rodna Odbrana, and that, lastly, the transportation 
of the criminals and their arms to Bosnia was ar- 
ranged and carried out by leading Servian frontier 
officials. 

The cited results of the investigation do not per- 
mit the Imperial and Royal Government to observe 
any longer the attitude of waiting, which it has as- 
sumed for years towards those agitations which 
have their centre in Belgrade, and which from there 
radiate into the territory of the monarchy. These 
results, on the contrary, impose upon the Imperial 
and Royal Government the duty to terminate in- 
trigues which constitute a permanent menace for 
the peace of the monarchy . 

In order to obtain this purpose, the Imperial and 
Royal Government is forced to demand official as- 
surance from the Servian Government that it con- 
demns the propaganda directed against Austria- 
Hungary, i. e., the entirety of the machinations 
the aim of which is to separate parts from the 
monarchy which belong to it, and that she binds 
herself to suppress with all means this criminal 
and terrorizing propaganda. 

In order to give to these obligations a solemn 
character, the Royal Servian Government shall pub- 
lish on the first page of its official organ of July 
26, 1914, the following declaration: 

"The Royal Servian Government condemns the 
propaganda directed against Austria-Hungary, 



200 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

i. e., the entirety of those machinations whose 
aim it is to separate from the Austro-Hnngarian 
monarchy territories belonging thereto, and she 
regrets sincerely the ghastly consequences of 
these criminal actions. 

"The Royal Servian Government regrets that 
Servian officers and officials have participated in 
the propaganda cited above, and have thus 
threatened the friendly and neighborly relations 
which the Royal Government was solemnly bound 
to cultivate by its declaration of March 31st, 
1909. 

"The Royal Government, which disapproves 
and rejects every thought or every attempt to 
influence the destinies of the inhabitants of any 
part of Austria-Hungary, considers it its duty 
to call most emphatically to the attention of its 
officers and officials, and of the entire population 
of the kingdom, that it will henceforward proceed 
with the utmost severity against any persons 
guilty of similar actions, to prevent and sup- 
press which it will make every effort." 

This explanation is to be brought simultaneously 
to the cognizance of the Royal Army through an 
order of His Majesty the King, and it is to be pub- 
lished in the official organ of the army. 

The Royal Servian Government binds itself, in 
addition, as follows: 

1. To suppress any publication which fosters 
hatred of, and contempt for, the Austro-Hungarian 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 201 

monarchy, and whose general tendency is directed 
against the latter's territorial integrity. 

2. To proceed at once with the dissolution of 
the society Narodna Odbrana, to confiscate its 
entire means of propaganda, and to proceed in the 
same manner against the other societies and as- 
sociations in Servia which occupy themselves with 
the propaganda against Austria-Hungary. The 
Royal Government will take the necessary measures 
so that the dissolved societies may not continue 
their activities under another name or in another 
form. 

3. Without delay to eliminate from the pub- 
lic instruction in Servia, so far as the corps of in- 
structors as well as the means of instruction 
are concerned, that which serves, or may 
serve, to foster the propaganda against Austria- 
Hungary. 

4. To remove from military service and the ad- 
ministration in general all officers and officials who 
are guilty of propaganda against Austria-Hungary, 
and whose names, with a communication of the 
material which the Imperial and Royal Govern- 
ment possesses against them, the Imperial and 
Royal Government reserves the right to communi- 
cate to the Royal Government. 

5. To consent that in Servia officials of the Im- 
perial and Royal Government cooperate in the sup- 
pression of a movement directed against the terri- 
torial integrity of the monarchy. 

6. To commence a judicial investigation against 



202 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

the participants of the conspiracy of June 28th, who 
are on Servian territory. Officials, delegated by the 
Imperial and Royal Government, will participate 
in the examinations. 

7. To proceed at once with all severity to arrest 
Major Voja Tankosic and a certain Milan Cigano- 
vic, Servian state officials, who have been com- 
promised through the result of the investigation. 

8. To prevent through effective measures and 
participation of the Servian authorities in the 
smuggling of arms and explosives across the fron- 
tier, and to dismiss those officials of Shabatz and 
Loznica, who assisted the originators of the crime 
of Sarajevo in crossing the frontier. 

9. To give to the Imperial and Royal Govern- 
ment explanations in regard to the unjustifiable 
utterances of high Servian functionaries in Servia 
and abroad who have not hesitated, in spite of their 
official position, to express themselves in interviews 
in a hostile manner against Austria-Hungary after 
the outrage of June 28th. 

10. The Imperial and Royal Government ex- 
pects a reply from the Royal Government at the 
latest until Saturday 25th, inst., at 6 p. m. A 
memoir concerning the results of the investiga- 
tions at Sarajevo, so far as they concern points 7 
and 8, is enclosed with this note. 

ENCLOSURE. 

The investigation carried on against Gavrilo 
Prinzip and accomplices in the Court of Sarajevo, 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 203 

on account of the assassination on June 28th, so far, 
yielded the following results: 

1. The plan to murder Archduke Frank Fer- 
dinand during his stay in Sarajevo was conceived in 
Belgrade by Gavrilo Prinzip, Nedjelko Cabrinovic, 
and a certain Milan Ciganovic and Trifko Grabez, 
with the aid of Major Voja Tankosic. 

2. The six bombs and four Browning pistols 
which were used by the criminals were obtained by 
Milan Ciganovic and Major Tankosic, and pre- 
sented to Prinzip and Cabrinovic .in Belgrade. 

3. The bombs are hand grenades, manufactured 
at the arsenal of the Servian army in Kragu- 
jevac. 

4. To insure the success of the assassination, 
Milan Ciganovic instructed Prinzip and Cabrinovic 
in the use of the grenades and gave instructions in 
shooting with Browning pistols to Prinzip and Gra- 
bez in a forest near the target practice field of Top- 
shider (outside Belgrade). 

5. In order to enable the crossing of the frontier 
of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Prinzip, Cabrinovic 
and Grabez, and the smuggling of their arms, a 
secret system of transportation was organized by 
Ciganovic. The entry of the criminals with their 
arms into Bosnia and Herzegovina was effected by 
the frontier captains of Shabatz (Rade Popovic) 
and of Loznica, as well as by the custom house 
official Rudivoy Grbic of Loznica with the aid of 
several other persons. 



204 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 
THE SERVIAN ANSWER. 

Presented at Vienna, July 25th, 1914. 

(With Austria-Hungary's commentaries, which are 
presented under quotation marks.) 

The Royal Government has received the com- 
munication of the Imperial and Royal Government 
of the 23d inst. and is convinced that its reply will 
dissipate any misunderstanding which threatens to 
destroy the friendly and neighborly relations be- 
tween the Austrian monarchy and the kingdom of 
Servia. 

The Royal Government is conscious that nowhere 
there have been renewed protests against the great 
neighborly monarchy like those which at one time 
were expressed in the Skuptschina, as well as in 
the declaration and actions of the responsible 
representatives of the state at that time, and which 
were terminated by the Servian declaration of 
March 31st, 1909 ; furthermore, that since that time 
neither the different societies of the kingdom nor 
the officials have made an attempt to alter the 
political and judicial condition created in Bosnia 
and the Herzegovina. The Royal Government 
states that the I. and R. Government has made no 
protestation in this sense, excepting in the case of a 
textbook, in regard to which the I. and R. Govern- 
ment has received an entirely satisfactory explana- 
tion. Servia has given during the time of the Bal- 
kan crisis in numerous cases evidence of her pacific 
and moderate policy, and it is owing to Servia and 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 205 

the sacrifices which she has brought in the interest 
of the peace of Europe that this peace has been 
preserved. 

"The Royal Servian Government limits itself to 
establishing that since the declaration of March 
31st, 1909, there has been no attempt on the part 
of the Servian Government to alter the position of 
Bosnia and the Herzegovina. 

"With this she deliberately shifts the foundation 
of our note, as we have not insisted that she and 
her officials have undertaken anything official in 
this direction. Our gravamen is that, in spite of 
the obligation assumed in the cited note, she has 
omitted to suppress the movement directed against 
the territorial integrity of the monarchy. 

"Her obligation consisted in changing her atti- 
tude and the entire direction of her policies, and in 
entering into friendly and neighborly relations with 
the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and not only not 
to interfere with the possession of Bosnia." 

The Royal Government cannot be made respon- 
sible for expressions of a private character, as for 
instance newspaper articles and the peaceable work 
of societies, expressions which are of very common 
appearance in other countries, and which ordinarily 
are not under the control of the state. This, all the 
less, as the Royal Government has shown great 
courtesy in the solution of a whole series of ques- 
tions which have arisen between Servia and Austria- 



206 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

Hungary, whereby it has succeeded to solve the 
greater number thereof, in favor of the progress of 
both countries. 

"The assertion of the Royal Servian Government 
that the expressions of the press and the activity of 
Servian associations possess a private character, 
and thus escape government control, stands in full 
contrast with the institutions of modern states and 
even the most liberal of press and society laws, 
which nearly everywhere subject the press and the 
societies to a certain control of the state. This is 
also provided for by the Servian institutions. The 
rebuke against the Servian Government consists in 
the fact that it has totally omitted to supervise its 
press and its societies, in so far as it knew their 
direction to be hostile to the monarchy." 

The Royal Government was therefore painfully 
surprised by the assertions that citizens of Servia 
had participated in the preparations of the outrage 
in Sarajevo. The Government expected to be in- 
vited to cooperate in the investigation of the crime, 
and it was ready, in order to prove its complete 
correctness, to proceed against all persons in regard 
to whom it would receive information. 

"This assertion is incorrect. The Servian Govern- 
ment was accurately informed about the suspicion 
resting upon quite definite personalities, and not 
only in the position, but also obliged by its own 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 207 

laws to institute investigations spontaneously. The 
Servian Government has done nothing in this 
direction." 

According to the wishes of the I. and R. Govern- 
ment, the Royal Government is prepared to sur- 
render to the court, without regard to position and 
rank, every Servian citizen, for whose participation 
in the crime of Sarajevo it should have received 
proof. It binds itself particularly on the first page 
of the official organ of the 26th of July to publish 
the following enunciation : 

"The Royal Servian Government condemns 
every propaganda which should be directed 
against Austria-Hungary, i. e., the entirety of 
such activities as aim towards the separation of 
certain territories from the Austro-Hungarian 
monarchy, and it regrets sincerely the lamentable 
consequences of these criminal machinations." 

The Austrian demand reads : 

"The Royal Servian Government condemns the 
propaganda against Austria-Hungary. . . ." 

"The alteration of the declaration as demanded 
by us, which has been made by the Royal Servian 
Government, is meant to imply that a propaganda 
directed against Austria-Hungary does not exist, 
and that it is not aware of such. This formula is in- 
sincere, and the Servian Government reserves itself 



208 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

the subterfuge for later occasions that it had not 
disavowed by this declaration the existing propa- 
ganda, nor recognized the same as hostile to the 
monarchy, whence it could deduce further that it is 
not obliged to suppress in the future a propaganda 
similar to the present one." 

The Royal Government regrets that according to 
a communication of the I. and R. Government 
certain Servian officers and functionaries have par- 
ticipated in the propaganda just referred to, and 
that these have therefore endangered the amicable 
relations for the observation of which the Royal 
Government had solemnly pledged itself through 
the declaration of March 31st, 1909. 

"The Government . . . identical with the 
demanded text." 

The formula as demanded by Austria-Hungary 
reads : 

"The Royal Government regrets that Servian 
officers and functionaries . . . have partici- 
pated. . . ." 

"And with this formula and the further addition, 
'according to the declaration of the I. and R. Gov- 
ernment,' the Servian Government pursues the 
object, already indicated above, to preserve a free 
hand for the future." 

The Royal Government binds itself further : 






AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 209 

1. During the next regular meeting of the 
Skuptschina to embody in the press laws a clause, 
to wit, that the incitement to hatred of, and con- 
tempt for, the monarchy is to be most severely pun- 
ished, as well as every publication whose general 
tendency is directed against the territorial integrity 
of Austria-Hungary. 

It binds itself in view of the coming revision of 
the constitution to embody an amendment into Art. 
22 of the constitutional law which permits the con- 
fiscation of such publications as is at present im- 
possible according to the clear definition of Art, 22 
of the constitution. 

Austria-Hungary had demanded: 

"1. To suppress every publication which incites 
to hatred and contempt for the monarchy, and 
whose tendency is directed against the territorial 
integrity of the monarchy, 

"We wanted to bring about the obligation for 
Servia to take care that such attacks of the press 
would cease in the future. 

"Instead Servia offers to pass certain laws which 
are meant as means towards this end, viz. : 

"(a) A law according to which the expressions of 
the press hostile to the monarchy can be individ- 
ually punished, a matter which is immaterial to us, 
all the more so as the individual prosecution of 
press intrigues is very rarely possible and as, with 
a lax enforcement of such laws, few cases of this 
nature would be punished. The proposition, there- 



210 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

_ 
fore, does not meet our demand in any way, and 

it offers not the least guarantee for the desired 

success. 

"(b) An amendment to Art. 22 of the constitu- 
tion, which would permit confiscation, a proposal 
which does not satisfy us, as the existence of such a 
law in Servia is of no use to us. For we want the 
obligation of the Government to enforce it and that 
has not been promised us. 

"These proposals are, therefore, entirely unsatis- 
factory and evasive as we are not told within what 
time these laws will be passed, and as in the event 
of the not-passing of these laws by the Skuptschina 
everything would remain as it is, excepting the 
event of a possible resignation of the Government." 

2. The Government possesses no proofs, and the 
note of the I. and R. Government does not submit 
them that the society Narodna Odbrana and other 
similar societies have committed, up to the present, 
any criminal actions of this manner through anyone 
of their members. Notwithstanding this, the Royal 
Government will accept the demand of the I. and R. 
Government and dissolve the society Narodna Od- 
brana, as well as every society which should act 
against Austria-Hungary. 

"The propaganda of the Narodna Odbrana and 
affiliated societies hostile to the monarchy fills the 
entire public life of Servia; it is, therefore, an en- 
tirely inacceptable reserve, if the Servian Govern- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 211 

ment asserts that it knows nothing about it Aside 
from this, our demand is not completely fulfilled 
as we have asked besides : 

"To confiscate the means of propaganda of these 
societies to prevent the reformation of the dissolved 
societies under another name and in another form 

"In these two directions the Belgrade Cabinet is 
perfectly silent, so that through this semi-conces- 
sion there is offered us no guarantee for putting an 
end to the agitation of the associations hostile to 
the monarchy, especially the Narodna Odbrana. 

3 The Royal Servian Government binds itself 
without delay to eliminate from the public instruc- 
tion in Servia anything which might further the 
propaganda directed against Austria-Hungary, pro- 
vided the L and R. Government furnishes actual 
proofs. 

"Also in this case the Servian Government first 
demands proof for a propaganda hostile to the mon- 
archy in the public instruction of Servia, while it 
must know that the textbooks introduced in the 
Servian schools contain objectionable matter in this 
direction, and that a large portion of the teachers 
are in the camp of the Narodna Odbrana and 
affiliated societies. 

"Furthermore, the Servian Government has not 
fulfilled a part of our demands, as we have re- 
quested, as it omitted in its text the addition desired 
by us: <as far as the body of instructors is con- 



212 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

cerned, as well as the means of instruction' — a sen- 
tence which shows clearly where the propaganda 
hostile to the monarchy is to be found in the Servian 
schools." 

4. The Royal Government is also ready to dis- 
miss those officers and officials from the military 
and civil services in regard to whom it has been 
proved by judicial investigation that they have been 
guilty of actions against the territorial integrity of 
the monarchy ; it expects that the I. and R. Govern- 
ment communicate to it for the purpose of starting 
the investigation the names of these officers and 
officials, and the facts with which they have been 
charged 

"By promising the dismissal from the military 
and civil services of those officers and officials who 
are found guilty by judicial procedure, the Servian 
Government limits its assent to those cases in 
which these persons have been charged with a crime 
according to the statutory code. As, however, we 
demand the removal of such officers and officials as 
indulge in a propaganda hostile to the monarchy 
which is generally not punishable in Servia, our de- 
mands have not been fulfilled in this point." 

5. The Royai Government confesses that it is not 
clear about the sense and the scope of that demand 
of the I. and R. Government which concerns the 
obligation on the part of the Royal Servian Gov- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 213 

eminent to permit the cooperation of officials of the 
I. and R. Government on Servian territory, but it 
declares that it is willing to accept every coopera- 
tion which agrees with international law and crim- 
inal law as well as with friendly and neighborly 
relations. 

"The international law, as well as the criminal 
law, has nothing to do with this question; it is 
purely a matter of the nature of state police which 
is to be solved by way of a special agreement. The 
reserved attitude of Servia is therefore incompre- 
hensible, and on account of its vague general form 
it would lead to unbridgeable difficulties." 

6. The Royal Government considers it its duty 
as a matter of course to begin its investigation 
against all those persons who have participated in 
the outrage of June 28th and who are in its terri- 
tory. As far as the cooperation in this investiga- 
tion of specially delegated officials of the I. and R. 
Government is concerned, this cannot be accepted, 
as this is a violation of the constitution and of crim- 
inal procedure. Yet in some cases the result of the 
investigation might be communicated to the Austro- 
Hungarian officials. 

The Austrian demand was clear and unmistak- 
able: 

"1. To institute a criminal procedure against the 
participants in the outrage. 



214 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

"2. Participation by I. and R. Government offi- 
cials in the examinations ( 'Recherche' in contrast 
with 'enquete judiciaire')." 

"3. It did not occnr to us to let I. and R. Govern- 
ment officials participate in the Servian court pro- 
cedure; they were to cooperate only in the police 
researches which had to furnish and fix the material 
for the investigation. 

"If the Servian Government misunderstands us 
here, this is done deliberately, for it must be famil- 
iar with the difference between "enquete judiciaire" 
and simple police researches. As it desired to 
escape from every control of the investigation which 
would yield, if correctly carried out, highly un- 
desirable results for it, and as it possesses no means 
to refuse in a plausible manner the cooperation of 
our officials (precedents for such police interven- 
tion exist in great numbers), it tries to justify its 
refusal by showing up our demands as impossible." 

7. The Royal Government had ordered on the 
evening of the day on which the note was received 
the arrest of Major Voislar Tankosic. However, as 
far as Milan Ciganovic is concerned, who is a cit- 
izen of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and who 
had been employed till June 28th with the Railroad 
Department, it has as yet been impossible to locate 
him, wherefore a warrant has been issued against 
him. 

The I. and R. Government is asked to make 
known, as soon as possible, for the purpose of con- 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 215 

ducting the investigation, the existing grounds for 
suspicion and the proofs of guilt obtained in the 
investigation at Sarajevo. 

"This reply is disingenuous. According to our in- 
vestigation, Ciganovic, by order of the police pre- 
fect in Belgrade, left three days after the outrage 
for Ribari, after it had become known that Cigano- 
vic had participated in the outrage. In the first 
place, it is, therefore, incorrect that Ciganovic left 
the Servian service on June 28th. In the second 
place, we add that the prefect of police at Belgrade, 
who had himself caused the departure of this Cigan- 
ovic and who knew his whereabouts, declared in an 
interview that a man by the name of Milan Cigano- 
vic did not exist in Belgrade." 

8. The Servian Government will amplify and 
render more severe the existing measures against 
the suppression of smuggling of arms and explo- 
sives. 

It is a matter of course, that it will proceed at 
once against, and punish severely, those officials of 
the frontier service on the line Shabatz-Loznica 
who violated their duty and who have permitted 
the perpetrators of the crime to cross the frontier. 

9. The Royal Government is ready to give ex- 
planations about the expressions which its officials 
in Servia and abroad have made in interviews after 
the outrage and which, according to the assertion of 
the I. and R. Government, were hostile to the mon- 



216 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

archy. As soon as the I. and R. Government points 
out in detail where those expressions were made 
and succeeds in proving that those expressions have 
actually been made by the functionaries concerned, 
the Royal Government itself will take care that the 
necessary evidences and proofs are collected there- 
for. 

"The Royal Servian Government must be aware 
of the interviews in question. If it demands of the 
I. and R. Government that it should furnish all 
kinds of detail about the said interviews and re* 
serves for itself the right of a formal investigation, 
it shows that it is not its intention seriously to ful- 
fill the demand." 

The Royal Government will notify the I. and 
R. Government, as far as this has not been al- 
ready done by the present note, of the execution 
of the measures in question as soon as one of 
these measures has been ordered and put into 
execution. 

The Royal Servian Government believes it to be 
to the common interest not to rush the solution of 
these affairs, and it is, therefore, in case the I. and 
R. Government should not consider itself satisfied 
with this answer, ready, as ever, to accept a peace- 
able solution, be it by referring the decision of this 
question to the International Court at The Hague 
or by leaving it to the decision of the Great Powers 
who have participated in the working out of the 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 217 

declaration given by the Servian Government on 
March 31st, 1909. 

"The Servian note, therefore, is entirely a play 
for time." 



21787 239 



APPENDIX B. 



PETEE THE GREAT'S WILL. 



According to the document, Peter enjoins the 
Russians to observe these instructions as the Jews 
observed the laws of Moses, and prophesies that 
they will be successful. 

1. Russia must keep her men continually in 
training for war. She should be at peace only when 
it is necessary for her to recuperate financially. 
Thus war must serve peace, and peace war for the 
greater glory of Russia. 

2. Every able general, every learned man among 
the best instructed nations of Europe that can be 
induced to settle in the dominions of the Czar is an 
advantage gained. 

3. We must take part in all the affairs of Europe. 
We must especially sow and foster discord in 
Germany. 

4. Poland must be divided. We can let the 
neighboring powers have a share until we can re- 
take what we have yielded. 

5. Sweden must be subjugated, therefore we 
must separate Sweden from Denmark and keep up 
a rivaly between them. 

6. The wives of Russian princes should always 

218 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 219 

be chosen among the German princesses, to increase 
our influence in Germany. 

7. Commercially, we must ally ourselves with 
England. We need English gold and want her 
seamen and traders to teach ours. 

8. We must incessantly extend ourselves alonsr 
the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. 

9. We must advance towards Constantinople 
and India. When we have India we can do with- 
out English gold, for the power which holds the 
wealth of India is the true mistress of the world. 
We must make war continually upon both Turkey 
and Persia until we have compassed the downfall 
of both. We must try to revive the ancient com- 
merce of the Levant and Syria with Europe and 
India. 

10. We must promise to Austria our help in 
making her mistress of all Germany, and must 
excite the jealousies of the German princes against 
her. 

11. We may give Austria a share of Turkey 
when we drive the Turks from Europe. What we 
give her, we can retake afterward. 

12. All adherents of the Greek churches in Hun- 
gary, Turkey and Poland we must support. They 
will be our friends in the midst of the enemies' 
country. 

13. When Sweden, Persia, Poland and Turkey 
have been subjugated, when the Baltic and the 
Black Seas are guarded by our ships, we must first 
offer to France, and, if she refuses, to Austria, to 



220 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE WAR 

share the world with her. Thus using one to destroy 
the other, we can rush the remaining one at our 
ease. 

14. If both refuse we must excite their jealous- 
ies until they exhaust each other by continual wars. 
Then Germany must be attacked with overwhelm- 
ing forces. When Germany and France are over- 
come, the rest of Europe will immediately submit 
to us. Thus can and must Europe be subdued. 




o* v 






V-^V v*^> v-*-V 








° <4 

, « «>£~ «^ Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
V^ Treatment Date: ^y 2001 

PreservationTechnologies , a 



4 



r. >. *«r .^Va 1 



A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 








3» 






L*"*U V 



^ 



•• *> 






J.""'*. V 










SEPT.-OCT. 1987 




